


What we've become

by charliepower



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Metahuman Leonard Snart, Metahuman Lisa Snart, Metahuman Mick Rory, metahuman
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charliepower/pseuds/charliepower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Going up as a team against Zoom has some unexpected consequences for both Team Flash and The Rouges. When those who didn't already have powers develop them it's a lot to adjust to. Especially for Leonard Snart who has never felt more cold and isolated in his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> come visit me on tumblr:  
> perilofachopshop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be posting a song off of my Coldflash playlist in each chapter, it won't necessarily relate but thought it would be cute to share.
> 
> Cold as ice - Foreigner

Barry stared at the two people that were in coma's because of him. 

Leonard Snart. 

Caitlin Snow. 

Three weeks ago the rogues had accompanied Team Flash through a portal they had managed to create into Earth-2, realising it was going to take all of them to defeat Zoom which was something they all wanted, after all, Len had reasoned with The Rogues, we can't rob a city if everyone's dead.  

But for reasons unknown to them killing Zoom had a similar effect to that of the singularity and they'd all been hit. Luckily the people of earth-2 hadn't been effected as everyone with the metagene had already got their powers. Unfortunately, being from earth-1 _they_ were all effected by the blast, Cisco had a few theories as to why but hadn't had the time to look into it what with their new problem at hand. The problem being that they now had several new meta's on their hand. 

  

  

**Mick Rory aka** **Heatwave**  

  

Mick was fairly pleased with his new abilities. Being able to create fire at will was something that the pyromaniac was far too pleased with, however it did come with a downside, the man thought to himself as he glared at the room he was confined to.  

 _When Zoom had exploded, everyone had been using their weapons. Mick could remember firing his gun, watching the fire that came out of it was_ _hypnotising_ _. But then the wave hit them and the flame came back towards Mick, the gun exploding in his hand and the fire engulfed his body. He remembered dropping to his knees, briefly seeing the good doctor being impaled by ice that had come out of_ _KillerFrost_ _'_ _s_ _hands, it had been intended for Zoom but had been blown backwards piercing_ _Doctor_ _Snow in the heart. Her eyes were wide as she collapsed, a silent scream on her lips. Mick wanted to help but the fire that surrounded his body stopped him from doing anything. Every part of Mick's body was on fire, it felt like his brain was melting inside his head while he was still conscious and he dug his fingers into the soil beneath his hands, trying to do anything to get rid of the feeling. He probably would've laughed if he wasn't screaming, of course this is how he would go. The pyromaniac wasn't sad, if anything he was happy about it._ _Unfortunately he couldn't stop his body's natural reaction the pain and as another scream ripped through his throat he had blacked out._  

 _When he came to Mick was aware of the fact that he was in the same place, but looking around he could see that most of his and the flash's team were on the ground unmoving. The only one's awake other than him were The Flash, Ramon, Hartley,_ _Mardon_ _and Baez - the_ _metahumans_ _._ _Dazed, Mick_ _couldn't do anything but watch the f_ _ive_ _o_ _f them get to_ _work, feeling_ _too out of it to even think about_  

 _Baez was checking on each person individually, her medical experience coming in handy, while Hartley was working on fixing the portal back to their earth._  

 _Ramon was holding Lisa in his arms, rocking backwards and_ _forwar_ _ds_ _begging her to wake up. For a moment Mick was worried his best friends sister was dead until he saw that her chest was moving and she must just be passed out like he had been a few moments ago. Her body was emitting a light glow but Cisco didn't seem to notice and just continued to hold her and run his hand through her hair._  

 _The flash was running round checking that everybody was still alive. When the kid finally got Len he slowly dropped to his knees, his hand moving towards the boss' neck, pausing for a moment as if he was scared to see. The kid slowly extended his arm, finally pressing his fingers to_ _Snart_ _neck, freezing for a minute before ripping off his cowl and completely covering Len's body with his own, a sob ripping through his throat. Mick stared in disbelief, was_ _Snart_ _dead? Forgetting his pain Mick gathered all of his strength and walked the few metre's towards_ _Cold's_ _body._  

 _Noticing him the Flash looked up, eyes red and raw, tears clear on his face. The kid looked barely old enough to have his own job and clearly didn't care about his 'secret identity' at the moment, but that wasn't what Mick needed to worry about - for now._  

 _"He dead?" Mick asked, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. Len would kill him if he thought he was getting soft now, when he needed to be there for his precious_ _F_ _lash. Mick knew there was nothing technically going on between the two but he also knew that the kid meant a lot to the infamous Captain Cold. Of course neither Rory nor_ _Snart_ _knew for certain whether or not the Flash had any similar ... feelings? ... towards Cold but this just confirmed Mick's suspicions that he did._  

 _Another sob left the kids throat but he shook his head, "H-he's so c-cold"_  

 _Rory had to take a step back at the pain in the kids voice, watching_ _T_ _he_ _F_ _lash sob over_ _C_ _aptain_ _C_ _old, seeing Ramon rocking backwards and forwards with Lisa in his arms, seeing_ _Snow_ _lying on the floor with_ _Shawna_ _looking over her, seeing Wally on the floor_ _unconscious_ _filled Mick with more anger than he'd ever felt in his life. His whole body started to burn up because of it, the anger fully taking him over._  

 _And with a roar, Mick Rory burst into flames._  

When they'd managed to get back to STAR Labs it became clear that Mick couldn't properly control his new powers. It had took two weeks for Mick to stop randomly combusting and when he had Cisco had managed to show him something that would isolate his powers to just his hands. He explained that he couldn't fly like Ronnie but in regards to the whole shooting out fire, he would be "just as badass" as Cisco put it. Mick just grunted, happy that he would finally be out of that room. Or so he thought. Cisco told Mick it would perhaps be better if they waited another week just to make sure his device worked. However today was the last day and Mick was sure that Cisco was going to come round soon to let him out. 

As if hearing his thought's the door to his room clicked and unlocked. Mick Rory - Heatwave (he felt far more suited to his name now) - pushed open the door and made his way towards the cortex, where he knew the team would be waiting for him. 

 

  

 **Wally West aka Kid Flash**  

  

"But what I don't get is why I have to be _kid_ flash, I'm not even a kid. Barry isn't that much older than me" Wally complained for what seemed like the millionth time. Even Joe was getting fed up with him. 

"Look Wally, it's just the name you have for now, I mean look at Barry, he had people calling him ' _the streak'_ when he first started" Joe tried to reason and Barry cringed at the reminder of that awful nickname. 

Wally just frowned even more. When he had first met Joe it was hard to find out about Barry. Wally wasn't the jealous type but it was hard not to be when he realised how great Barry was. Not only did Joe and Iris think he could do nothing wrong, not only was he a genius, but then Wally had to go out and find out that he was also The Flash. Then Wally had finally been able to be his equal, receiving his own lightning speed abilities, only to be dubbed 'kid flash' by the people of Central City. And that made Wally feel just as inferior to Barry as he had felt before. 

Wally had woke up two weeks ago in STAR labs. 

" _Hey guys ..._ _guuuys_ _?? I think he's awake" A familiar voice called out._  

 _Wally sat up, feeling groggy, his eyes not yet properly adjusting to the bright light of the room. Suddenly a tall dark figure appeared at the doorway and came in the room, but all Wally could think of was Zoom. Standing as quickly as he could Wally ran towards the entrance to the room, planning on trying to escape. But he had barely made it to the door before a pair of arms wrapped around him and Wally started yelling,_ _franticly_ _trying to shake off the psycho that he could only assume had killed his friends._  

 _"Wally? Wally relax it's just us" A voice said to him_  

 _Pausing for a minute Wally was sure that he_ _recognised_ _the voice of the person that had his arms wrapped around him. Taking a deep breath_ _he_ _screwed his eyes shut before opening them again and blinking a few times, this time everything coming into focus. Seeing that he was in STAR labs Wally relax and shifted around to see who was holding him. Barry._  

 _Barry was frowning slightly._  

 _"Hey Wally could you stand up by yourself for me?" Cisco asked him, frowning just like Barry. Not even having_ _realised_ _he was holding_ _Barry_ _in the first place, Wally did as Cisco asked._  

 _Suddenly Cisco placed his hand on a vase next to Wally's bed and pushed it. As if on instinct, Wally ran towards it, not wanting to let it hit the floor but knowing that he was too far away to catch it._  

 _Which is why he was so shocked when the vase looked like it was falling in slow motion and he did end up catching it._  

 _"Woah dude" Wally heard and he_ _swivel_ _l_ _ed_ _round to face Cisco and Barry who were now staring at him with open mouths._  

 _"Looks like we have The Flash 2.0" Cisco said with a grin on his face._  

Since then Barry had been teaching Wally a lot about his powers and every time he would get frustrated about not being able to run fast enough Barry would encourage him, reminding him that he only got faster over time. Really, Wally knew, that the nickname 'kid flash' wasn't that bad and if anything it would be a nice nod towards Barry who was being an excellent and patient mentor, but Wally burned for another name, not wanting to feel like he was a lesser version of Barry anymore. 

But then again, he thought, staring at the room holding Caitlin Snow and Leonard Snart, things could be much worse. 

  

** Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider  
**

  

Lisa Snart stared up at her ceiling, barley having left her room in the week and a half her body had been awake. She knew it hurt Cisco to see her like this but she couldn't help it. It wasn't fair that she was okay - better than okay - when her brother wasn't even awake. She didn't even know if he would wake up at this point and the fear of that happening consumed her completely. 

She didn't have the energy to move her body right now and most of the time kept her door locked, the only time any one really got to see her was when she used her astral projection. 

Lisa's body had been awake for a week and a half sure, but her mind, that had been awake for a week longer. 

The first time it happened Lisa had thought she was dead.   
 

 _Lisa sat up suddenly, the previous events coming back to her like a painful slap_ _. Groaning she sat up and swung her legs over the bed. She started to look around the room but what she saw had her entire body freeze over. Lisa looked down onto the bed … at her own body._  

 _Screaming she jumped up and tried to cover her mouth as the tears filled up her eyes._  

 _What kind of hell was this? What was she? Was she a ghost … was she dead?_  

 _Lisa_ _dind't_ _want to have to spend forever watching the people she loved without properly being about to interact with them, without them knowing she was there, without Lenny … Oh god … Lenny._  

 _Running out of the room Lisa looked around wildly. She started to run down the corridor, stepping into each of the rooms until she got to one that presented her_ _with_ _the sight of her older brother, looking like he was sleeping._  

 _She walked slowly towards him, a hand outstretched._  

 _She'd never seen him look this relaxed before and that thought cut through her. The fact that only in this near death, possibly closer than she would like to admit, experience Lenny could really be at ease._  

 _"_ _Woaaah_ _Lisa what are you doing?"_  

 _She spun around and saw Cisco standing there looking shocked, "Y-You can see me?" She asked, unsure of her own voice._  

 _"Uh yeah … And how did you start moving so quickly? I just went to check on you a few minutes ago and it's usually really hard to get your body moving after you've been in a coma for even a short amount of time and oh my god I'm rambling but Lisa -" Cisco stopped and his teary eyes found hers._  

 _"I thought you were dead" He choked out and Lisa lets out a dry, painful laugh._  

 _"Cisco I think I am"_  

 _When his frowns at her in confusion she steps forward a few paces and before he can question her, sticks a hand through him._  

 _"Not this again" Cisco mutters before looking Lisa dead in the eye and fainting_  

A knock at the door brings Lisa out of her daydream. It turned out that Cisco wasn't fainting because of what had happened, the minute he woke up he had a pretty good idea as to what had happened, but he fainted because what Lisa had done reminded him of when evil-Wells had killed him. Lisa felt terrible for that as well and despite Cisco telling her that it was fine, that she couldn't have known, it just added to her awful mood. 

The door opens slowly and Cisco enters with a tray of food. 

"Hey Goldilocks I've brought you some food", He tells her with a smile on his face, but it's one that doesn't reach his eyes and Lisa has become all too familiar with that expression when he looks at her. 

She says nothing and just watches him as he places the tray down in her room. 

"Look Lisa I know this sucks but-" He begins and Lisa glares at him. 

"Do you?" She snaps, "Because last time I checked it wasn't your brother in a coma" 

"No but Caitlin is!" He yells back before shutting his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Look Lisa, Caitlin _is_ my sister okay, she's been there since the beginning, since before the particle accelerator exploded and she's my family. So I do know what it's like to have family in a coma" 

Lisa lowered her eyes in embarrassment, Lenny would be so pissed at her right now for losing her cool. 

Cisco sighs and comes over to the bed, sitting next to her and reaching over to take her hand into his. 

"Lisa I know it's scary but we have to be strong for them, I have to be strong for you. But we can get through this okay. We can get through it together." 

Before he says anything else Lisa separates their hands and swings her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulders, the weight of the past few weeks suddenly washing over her like a wave she can't fight off. 

Still it could be worse, she thinks to herself. Looking at the mirror across the room at the blonde man desperately banging on the other side of her mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okeydoke, there will be a 'Mirror Master' in this but it unfortunately isn't going to be Sam because I didn't want to confuse people that know nothing of the comics, also I didn't like Team Flash being so outnumbered so.  
> You may be able to guess who is going to be our 'Mirror Master' but hope you like it anyway!
> 
> Also Mick didn't think any 'still it could be worse' because I just don't think that's him, he seems to be more of a always moving forward kind of person.


	2. The Responsibility and the Façade of Cisco Ramon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco feels responsible and suddenly things go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stiches - Shawn Mendes

"Any sign of Eddie yet?" Iris questioned Cisco the minute she walked into the cortex the next day. Barry sighed as he looked at his best friend from across the room. She was trying to pretend she was okay but he knew better. 

When they'd all gone over to Earth-2 it was agreed that if they didn't return within three hours  Eddie was to go through with Joe and see what was happening and thanks to Cisco and Hartley they had a found a way to go through without the assistance of speedster.  

No one liked the plan and no one thought it would come to that. But then three hours were up and Eddie and Joe started to walk through only to have the portal shut before Joe managed to go through. 

Barry hadn't been there but Joe told him how scared Iris was. The portal had shut on Joe and they had no idea how it would affect Eddie, they didn't know if he would get to Earth-2, and they didn't know if he would just be left somewhere on the way. The second thought was the most concerning. But Eddie had never appeared on Earth-2 and they could only assume that that is what happened. Apparently Iris had been in tears, screaming that she couldn't lose him again, not after they had worked so hard to get him back before. (That wasn't an easy task and involved a particularly nasty meta) 

It was the start of week four and Cisco hadn't stopped looking. He would spend a good hour every day trying to vibe for Eddie and every day there was no sign of him. Everyone had given up but Iris. Barry had tried to speak to her the week before about maybe getting used to the idea that Eddie wasn't coming back, he knew how easy it was to get lost in there, but she had been so mad at him he couldn't dream of repeating his suggestion. 

"Sorry Iris" Cisco gave her a sympathetic look and Barry winced when she glared at him for it. He knew how hard Cisco was trying and Iris didn't mean it but she was only making Cisco feel worse. 

With a sigh Iris walked out of the cortex and made her way to Lisa's room as the two had started up an unlikely friendship, one that even seemed to unsettle Mick Rory. 

"C'mon man we should probably go and check on them". Barry didn't have to tell Cisco who he was referring to. 

Opening the door they both walked into the room and Barry sat in the chair between the two while Cisco checked over their vitals. 

"Do you think they're going to wake up?" Barry asked after a few moments of silence and Cisco paused with what he was doing. 

"I don’t ask myself those questions, because I know I won't like the answer" He replies after a moment of consideration. 

Finishing the check up he walks out of the room leaving Barry alone. Cisco had taken it upon himself to feel personally responsible for everyone what with Caitlin not being able to, but because of this Barry had seen him put up a wall that concerned his friend. The only person Cisco pretended to be like his old self around was Lisa and that's because she was worse off than he was.  

After the first few days Cisco refused to spend any more time than was necessary around their patients, only coming in to make sure they were doing okay. 

Barry on the other hand, basically lived in this small room and it made him feel terrible, terrible because a part of his heart hurt more to look at Cold lying there than Caitlin and he knew that wasn't fair. Caitlin was one of his best friends and Cold was … barely an ally. Caitlin was the one that had been there for him when he had been betrayed, she was the one that patched him up when his enemies, when people like Cold, had hurt him and yet … and yet he had the audacity to sit there and …  

Letting out a shaky breath Barry ran a hand through his hair and took the hand of his friend, and then the one of his nemesis like he did most days. If Cisco ever saw on the cameras, which he probably did, he never said anything. 

There was an awkward cough at the door and Barry looked up to see Heatwave standing at the door looking uncharacteristically uncomfortable. Blushing Barry pulled his hand out of Cold's and placed it back into his lap. 

"How are they?" The man asked and Barry laughed 

"Snart's the same. His body temperature has decreased a little bit but nothing too concerning, yet anyway." 

"And..." Mick paused before sighing, "And the Doctor?' 

"Oh Caitlin? Yeah she's fine as well." 

Moving out of the entrance Mick moved to the right side of Caitlin's bed. He stared at her as he started to speak to Barry. 

"There's no point beating yourself up about all this doll" The nickname, though at first made Barry blush did nothing to him now. 

"I just keep thinking back to it, if I'd just known what was going to happen, if I'd reacted faster or something. But I didn't even see it happening, one minute Zoom was in front of me, dying, and next thing I knew I was thrown across the room and when I stood up I saw everyone on the ground and then …" 

Barry stops and blushes, knowing that Rory was remembering finding him holding Snart's body. 

 _The blast was so sudden, so unexpected that Barry didn't even have time to prepare himself for it. Flying back he felt himself slam into a brick wall before falling to the ground. It was so bright that for the first few moments, he couldn't even open his eyes._  

 _Barry didn't_ _know how long h_ _ad_ _passed before he even started to move his fingers, he wasn't proud to admit it but he was scared. He was scared to discover how broken he was, scared that when he moved the pain would finally hit him, scared to look around and see what had happened to his friends. He worried about them because he recognised that blast, he'd felt it before when the particle_ _accelerator_ _had blown up and he was terrified at what that meant for his friends._  

 _"Barry, Barry you have to wake up" Someone said, slowly shaking him, "Come on we need you to help us"_  

 _Finally opening his eyes Barry rolled over to stare at whoever it was speaking to him. Hartley. Hartley, despite officially being a Rogue, had started to become more of an anti-hero over the last few months and often helped out back at STAR labs_ _._  

 _"Bar we need you to quickly_ _check to see wh_ _o_ _needs Peek-a-Boo's help first, I'm working on getting the portal back up but we need you Barry"_  

 _Hartley hel_ _d_ _his hand out and Barry took it, allowing himself to be pulled up. As soon as he could stand alone Hartley left him to walk towards the portal, leaving Barry to run around their group._  

 _He saw Caitlin on the ground, unmoving, and when he reached down to feel her pulse_ _his heart clenched at how slow it was, and at how cold she was._  

 _"Boo? I need you over her now!" He called out and almost immediately Baez appeared next to him and dropped to her knees to do what she could._  

 _As he stood to leave her in the hands of Shawna he saw_ _Killer Frosts_ _a few metres away. She was bleeding from her stomach_ _and_ _despite being_ _conscious_ _, made no attempts to apply pressure._  

 _"Frost hang on, I'll get you some help" Barry told her, grateful for the help the woman had provided in their time of need._  

 _A bloody chuckle left her lips and she grabbed onto his ankle before he could run and get her help._  

 _"D-don't w-worry. My R-_ _ronnie_ _is w-waiting for me"_  

 _"Frost no" Barry felt his eyes burn, he couldn't lose someone now, not after everything they'd been through, not now._  

 _"Flash p-please. I'm not l-living without him, I c-can't do it anymore_ _. He b-b_ _alanced me, fire and ice, I'm t-too dangerous w-without him, I c-can't trust_ _mysel_ _f_ _a-around anyone n-now that I've become someone w-who isn't a bad g-guy. P-please Flash, just ..._ _"_  

 _She reached up her hand to take his, and Barry lace_ _d_ _their fingers together._  

 _"Thank you Frost, thank you for everything."_  

 _The smile just about reache_ _d_ _the woman's eyes before her expression went blank and her_ _hand slipped out of Barry's. There would be time to mourn later._  

 _Flashing back around the group_ _he saw Cisco holding Lisa already, rocking backwards and forwards and he feared for the worst but as he sped past, felt that she had a pulse._  

 _Thankfully so did Wally._  

 _Heatwave_ _was_ _already starting to sit up and Barry realise_ _d_ _the last person still down_ _was_ _Captain Cold. All the power left his body and Barry couldn't even speed over to see if the man was alive or not, each step  felt like it was dragging him down and a strange sense of terror gripped him. Barry wasn't sure why, out of everybody here, out of all his friends,_ _why_ _it was Captain Cold not making it that scared him the most._  

 _Maybe it was because of how much fun Barry had in the Rogues heists – though he would never admit it to the_ _thief_ _. Or maybe it was because he knew that_ _Snart_ _still had so much potential, that this had been the first step in his_ _redemption_ _and_ _that he_ _was more of a hero than he would ever realise._  

 _Finally_ _he reached the mans body and dropped to his knees_ _,_ _slowly reaching out a hand. Barry stopped before touching_ _Snarts_ _neck to look for a pulse and for a moment the fear of him being dead stopped him from even moving. But Barry took a few deep breaths_ _finally touch_ _ing_ _Colds neck_ _,_ _and nearly ripped his hand back from the shock of it. He was so cold, so unbelievably cold Barry felt it hurt him in the same way the_ _c_ _old gun would. Surely the man shouldn't be this cold? This couldn't mean anything good for him, what if he never woke up, what if Lisa was left alone. The man had so much left to do he couldn't stay like this, it wasn't fair it wasn’t -_  

 _With a sob Barry ripped of his_ _cow_ _l_ _and half flung himself over Leonard_ _Snart's_ _body. The coldness of the man_ _was starting to make his body ache but he couldn't remove himself._  

 _"He dead?" He heard_ _Heatwave_ _ask and Barry hadn't even noticed him come over._  

 _"H-he's so c-cold" was all Barry managed to choke out before Heatwave gave a roar of anger and_ _burst into flames._  

"Look kid," Mick started, snapping Barry out of his daydreaming. "They're going to be okay" He patted Barry on the back before walking towards the door. 

"Hey Mick, thanks" Mick just gave a snort and walked out of the room. Barry could tell that although the man would refuse to admit it, he was worried about both of the two bedridden friends. Cisco was suspicious about Micks concern over Caitlin at first, but during his weeks in isolation Mick had admitted to Barry that he had seen go down and since then Cisco had eased up a little bit. Mick tried to play it off, but that had to give anybody nightmares.  

"MARK DON'T YOU DARE!" Barry heard Cisco suddenly yell from the cortex and within a second Barry was by his side. 

Their alliance with the rogues though there, was still somewhat shaky at times. 

"What happened?" Barry asked, worried for his friend. 

" _Weather Wizard_ over here tried changing his name on the meta database we have and when I locked him out from my ipad he threatened to rain on it, _rain on it Barry"_ Cisco whispered the last part through clenched teeth and Barry had to hold back a laugh. 

"Mark come on it's not that bad" Barry tried to reason and Mark just glared at him. 

"How would you know _flash._ Weather Wizard makes me sound like I belong in a kids show, why can't I be called cyclone or something cool?" 

"I have been telling Cisquito to up his nicknaming game" Hartley sighed from where he was sitting. 

"I don't really think Barry knows what it's like to have a cool nickname, his makes him sound like a weirdo standing in an alleyway wearing a trench coat" Shawna scoffed and Barry had the weirdest sense of déjà vu. 

"Hey don’t insult the nickname, I thought of it" Iris said, coming out of nowhere with Lisa next to her. 

"Okay well actually I told you _first_ so …"  

"Yeah but I didn't have to go with it, I could've continued with 'The Streak'"  

Everyone winced at that memory. 

"Cisco can I speak to you for a second" Lisa asked quietly and the rest of the Rogues and Team Flash took the hint and left the room to join Mick in the living room down the corridor. They had put it together a few weeks ago when they realised that they were all basically spending not only their nights at the labs, but also their days. 

"Look I just wanted to apologise for being rude to you yesterday, you didn't deserve it and I know you're trying your best. I just spoke to Iris and we realised that we've all been taking our problems out on you as if you're responsible for anyone here, which isn't fair when you already feel that way as it is" 

"Lisa … I am responsible for everyone here though, with no Caitlin it has to be me." 

"No Cisco it doesn't, it has to be all of us, we're a team now no matter how dysfunctional" 

She put a finger under his chin and lifted his head up so that he was looking into her eyes, "Do you understand?" She asked softly and when he nodded she pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. 

All of a sudden Cisco iPad flashed up an alert that caused the man to swear and he ran towards the room holding Caitlin and Snart. 

Reaching the door Cisco tried to open it but it was frozen in place "No, no no no this can't be happening" 

"Cisco what's going on?" Lisa asked, suddenly terrified, knowing that if Cisco couldn't keep up the calm façade he'd been pretending to have for Lisa the past few weeks, then it had to be bad. 

"Get Barry and Mick, NOW!" He yelled and Lisa ran down the corridor as fast as she could. 

Running into the room she interrupted laughter, and everyone stopped the minute they saw the look on her face. Barry was in front of her in an instant. 

"Cisco! Cisco needs you now – the room – there's something wrong – and mick. GO!" She yelled and both men ran towards the cortex immediately and everyone else followed behind them. 

"What's wrong?" Lisa asked as Barry and Mick glared frantically at the door. 

"I can't phase through" 

"And I can't melt it" Mick growled, "No matter how much heat I apply it just keeps freezing up." 

"Lisa we need you to go in there" Cisco said and Lisa felt her body stiffen. 

"Cisco no I can't" 

"Lisa you have to!" Barry snapped and Mick glared at him. 

"No, I-I can't. What if something's w-wrong with Lenny? What if it's not Lenny and he's still d-dead?" She started gasping and knew that she was going to scare herself into a panic attack if she couldn't calm down. 

"Hey, hey it's okay Lees, it's going to be okay" Cisco said placing his hands on either side of her face, "You're going to be okay" He repeated and for some reason Lisa believed him. 

Shutting her eyes Lisa took a deep breath and felt herself move forward, leaving her body behind. 

As she glided towards the door she felt everyone watching her in awe, she knew that the golden glow around her was mesmerising and if she wasn't so scared she would be flattered.  

Taking a deep breath Lisa closed her eyes and moved into the cold room, thankful that at least she couldn't feel the cold. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there is anything that causes you to go ?? let me know because then I can tell you if I plan to explain it or whether it was me just messing up in which case I will resolve it.
> 
> For example, I will be explaining Barry being chill with Mick calling him 'doll' in the future, this is not something I am just going to ignore


	3. No Pressure Shawna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's more complicated than they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pendulum - FKA Twigs

"She's been in there for over an hour guys" Cisco said walking back into the cortex with Hartley, while playing around with his tablet trying to at least get the cameras in the room working. 

When he looked up at the lack of responses he saw that his comment was met with glares from both Barry and Mick. 

Barry had repeatedly tried to phase through the door and one attempt ended with him being knocked cold for 10 minutes.  

Mick would … one could only describe it as _diffuse_ when he touched the door for too long. 

"Dammit" Mick growled after another failed try at melting some of the ice covering the door. 

"Cisco do you even have anything for us?" Barry sighed 

"Okay first of all ouch, and second we've found that there are actually two type's of ice there, one is an absolute zero ice that works by taking the heat out of the surrounding air, and the other takes the heat out of the surface." 

Hartley rolled his eyes at the blank expressions they were getting and continued for Cisco. "Basically, Barry can't get through because the absolute zero is slowing him down too much for him to phase through the door, he's lucky it's cold enough that he didn’t have the speed to try and go through or he probably would've got stuck" 

Barry winced, that was an unappealing image. 

"And then this 'real ice', is stopping Mick from using his powers because it's draining the heat out of him, the only reason he hasn't died is because by the time it finishes draining the heat out of his fire that's enough for it to balance out, if one of us touched that for too long it would most likely kill us, and I'm guessing no one here wants to test that theory out." 

"As fascinating as this all is, how are we going to get in there?" Mark asked and Cisco and Hartley looked at each other before turning back to the group 

"That's the thing-" 

"-We don't know" 

"We're just going to have to wait it out" 

"Wait what out?" A voice interrupted and every one looked towards the entrance of the cortex to see Joe walking through the door with Wally by his side. 

"Sorry we took so long, I went to Joe straight away but the traffic was at a standstill and he wouldn't let my bring him back here." 

"There is no way you're ever _picking me up_ and then running me here. No way, a car is just fine. But seriously Barr what's going on Wally just told me that "It's complicated" which I'm assuming was just code for him not knowing anything" Joe laughed the last bit as Wally grumbled. 

"Caitlin and Snart's vitals suddenly spiked, flat-lined and by the time we got here the door was like this" Barry pointed to the frozen door and Joe whistled through his teeth. 

"Damn. Wait they flat-lined? Both of them?!" 

"It could just be because of how cold the room is that the machines stopped working" Cisco quickly mentioned, hearing the panic in Joe's voice. 

"Uh guys is Lisa okay?" Wally asked, staring at Lisa who's body was unmoving and staring at the door without blinking. 

"Oh yeah astral projection" 

Joe just shook his head. "Okay explain to me the whole ice thing before we get onto-" He waved at Lisa's body "that" 

Joe hadn't been coming to the labs since the first week back because everyone had been worried about the Rogue's around him, which is how he knew it was serious when Wally had shown up at his work telling him to get to STAR labs. 

When Cisco and Hartley had finished explaining what they'd told everyone else to Wally and Joe, Joe frowned and stared at the door, thinking deeply. 

"So this … absolute zero, isn't it just like Cold's gun?" 

"Uh yeah I guess?" Cisco said, frowning slightly. 

"And then the 'real ice' is draining Rory's power. Meaning wouldn't you need something that would have enough energy to melt the 'real ice', and something hot enough to melt the absolute zero." 

Hartley let out a noise and everyone looked at him, "That could work! We would need Mick to use his power to try and open the door at the same time, or else the heat would just be drained out of whatever we make, but if we deal with both problems at the same time then it should work." 

"Okay Cisco, Hartley get on that" Barry told them and as the two ran off to deal with that problem Barry turned towards Shawna. 

"If we managed to even get the door open a little bit do you think you could get in there?"  

"No." Mark snapped before Shawna even had the time to consider, "First of all you're betting on the fact that she'll even be able to _see_ in there. Second, if that's what has happened to the door, imagine what it could do to Shawna, and third, if there was anything that bad wouldn't Lisa have come back by now?" 

"Don't answer for me again Mark" Shawna growled, but put her arm around his waist at the same time to calm him down, noticing the low rumble of early thunder that seemed to be coming out of no where. 

"Look Barry, I think what Cisco and Hartley are doing is great in case anything does happen, but I'm sure Lise would've come out by now if there was anything _that_ wrong" 

"But what if she isn't okay!" Barry snapped before shutting his eye's and taking a deep breath. Opening them again he continued, "If Mark was dead in there, after a month of you getting your hopes up about him waking up, would you come out this soon? Or would you stay in there until you were physically dragged away?" 

Staring at the woman in front of him Barry saw Shawna's eyes steel over, "No you're right, if she doesn't come back by the time the science twins finish their little project I'll go in." 

Mark started to protest but Shawna scowled at him, "We owe Cold that much Mark" and that seemed to stop the mans complaints. 

Once again, Barry was amazed at the Rogues undying loyalty to Captain Cold. 

After another hour and a half of just waiting around Hartley and Cisco came back into the cortex. 

"We think we have something" Cisco said looking nervous and Hartley just scoffed. 

"Of course it's going to work" 

"Well it's worth a try, you ready Mick?" Barry laughed nervously, looking up at his friend. 

"Sure thing Doll" Mick replied, covering himself in flames at the same moment Joe started choking on air. 

" _Doll?"_  

"We all find it weird too don't worry," Wally said rolling his eyes. 

"Okay so we need Barry to attach this to the door the exact moment Mick touches it, otherwise the energy will just be drained out of the device  _before_ Mick and the device can balance each other out. Which is why you need to put it on Barry, so that you can match when Mick touches the door. _Then_ hopefully the ice will melt enough for the door to either be pushed open of for Barry to phase in." 

"And what if Barry phases in, can't get back and is then trapped in that cold room?" Joe asked looking aroun, as if no one was thinking this plan through, which they probably weren't Barry thought to himself. "Or what if by opening the door we just let the cold _out._ You know this cold that you said would be fatal for us to even touch?" 

"Joe, it'll be fine I promise," Barry smiled at his foster father and placed a hand on the mans arm before Joe took in a deep breath and nodded. 

"Fine." 

"Thank you Joe. But he is right. I want everyone by the window holding onto Shawna in case you need to get out of here quickly." 

"Barry you can't ask that of us" 

"Yes I can Shawna, I'm not going to have anyone else hurt okay? If this goes south then get everyone out of here." 

"I don't like this, we can't lose you as well, not after Eddie" 

"Iris I'll be fine I promise, this is just in case."  

The team walked over to the window and Shawna teleported Lisa over to where they had started to group together, ensuring that Shawna could see the pavement outside. They all stood in a line with Shawna at the front, then Mark, Hartley, Cisco, Lisa, Iris, Wally and ending with Joe. 

"Well here goes nothing" Barry muttered to Mick who was grinning in a way that almost concerned him. 

"Three..." 

"Two..." 

"ONE!" Barry shouted and as Micks hands landed on the door, he slammed on the device and the corners dug into the door. The device started the thrum and Mick flame decreased, but thankfully didn't completely go out. 

"Might want to go soon doll" Mick said in a slightly strained voice and Barry nodded, praying to whatever gods there were that he didn’t get stuck halfway through the door. 

But just as Barry prepared himself to run through the door everything started to go wrong. 

First Barry noticed a groaning sound coming from the metal door and he glanced at Mick who looked close to passing out, then suddenly the device on the door went out and almost the moment that happened the last of Mick's flame went out. The door let out a loud crack and started to split down the middle as ice started to seep out of it, crawling over the walls. 

"GO SHAWNA!" Barry yelled and as his friends disappeared to safety he ran forward to grab Mick. 

They'd got a few feet away when the door shattered into pieces and a cold wave swept through the room, throwing Barry, and as a result Mick, into a wall the other side of the cortex. 

Groaning, Barry tried to push himself up to look around the room through blurry eyes. A figure was walking towards Barry and he felt his heart stop. It couldn't be her, it must just be Barry not being able to see properly. The woman walking towards him had died, he saw it happen. But Barry knew what he was seeing, this wasn't a trick. 

"Frost?" Barry whispered before passing out.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly do their plans actually ever go to plan.
> 
> Feel free to Kudos/Bookmark/Subscribe, or say hi to me on tumblr at perilofachopshop x


	4. The Cold Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone needs to calm down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Criminal - Britney Spears

_A few hours earlier_  

If Lisa could breathe in her astral projection, she would've took a deep breath as she glided through the frozen door into the room on the other side. 

She was so scared, not for herself but for her brother, even for that Doctor Snow because she knew how much she meant to Cisco and he'd already been dealing with enough. Lisa had no idea what she was about to come face to face with and that's probably why she went through with her eyes closed. 

She knew she was in the room, she knew she had to open her eyes, someone had to see what was going on. Unfortunately that person was her. 

Steadying herself she started to - 

"Lisa?!"  

The sound of her brother's voice snapped her eyes open almost immediately. 

The room was … a mess to put it politely. There was thick ice covering the entire room and all of the equipment was frozen, Cisco was going to be heartbroken.  

What Lisa realised next was that it wasn't just Lenny that was awake, but it was also the Doctor, she looked different though, identical to that woman, that … Killer Frost? from Earth-2, she had the look spot on, even down to the coldness now in her usually warm eyes. 

And then Lenny … he looked almost normal. Almost. His usually bright blue eyes were now so bright they looked white and his lips were covered in a thin layer of frost, his whole body was covered in a thin layer of frost. 

The biggest difference between them however, was that while Lenny seemed to be pushing out the cold from inside, Snow seemed to be pulling the cold towards her. Interesting. 

"Lisa what are you – how are you in here?" 

Len looked so scared Lisa laughed, trust him to be more worried for her despite his current situation. 

"Well if you hadn't guessed _Lenny,_ Earth-2 did a number on us, this is what Cisco likes to call astral projection" 

"Wait does that mean...? What about your actual body? 

"Lenny I'm fine but I'll explain that later, for the minute do either of you care to explain this mess." 

"You wouldn't understand" Snow snapped and Lisa raised her eyebrow at her. 

"Try me" 

"Your _genius brother_ over here started freaking out when we woke up covered the room in ice" 

Freaking out? "Lenny was it a-" 

"It's not a big deal Lisa" Len snapped back at her and she sighed. Lenny hadn't had panic attacks since he was a teenager and for them to be back he must seriously be scared. 

"It's a big deal if it means we're stuck in here now" Snow half growled from her side of the room. 

Lisa looked backwards and forwards between the two and noticed how they both looked like they were ready to attack the other at any given moment. 

There was ice slowly creeping out of Len's hands to form blade like shards, and the air around Snow's hand's was forming the same thing, just it was appearing where it seemed she wanted it rather than it coming out of her like Len's. 

"Being stuck in here for an extra couple of hours doesn't make that big of a difference Snow, you need to calm down" 

"What do you _mean_ it doesn't make a difference" 

Lisa hesitated, unsure as to whether her answer would make them worse or not. 

"Lees, how long have we been in here?" Len asked his sister and Lisa looked between the cold twins before answering. 

"Just over a month" 

Len's face went blank and Lisa knew that he was trying to stay calm but the ice around him betrayed his expressionless face as it started to thicken. 

"Lenny relax, you need to relax okay" 

She glided over to her brother and looked directly into his eyes, "You're not going to be able to get out of here until you can control this okay?" Lisa turned to face Snow as well, "Same goes for you too, I get that you're trying to act as cold as Killer Frost so we don't see how scared you are but right now it's not going to help, I need you both to relax. The sooner you do, the sooner we'll be out of here and the sooner we can sort this out." 

Both of them nodded their heads at Lisa and she smiled. 

"Okay then, Len come over to this side of the room with Doctor Snow for a minute." 

Her brother frowned but did as he was told. 

"I need you to explain to me what you're feeling, if you talk about it you air your problems and it won't be as frightening anymore okay?" 

While Snow nodded her head with wide eyes Len scoffed at her, "You don't have to treat us like children Lisa, and I know what you're doing this is hardly the same thing" 

"I'm doing the best I can _Lenny_ ," Lisa said with a gentle smile on her face that Len immediately knew meant 'shut up'. 

"I'll go first if you don't want to?" The doctor suggested and Lisa tried not to look too surprised, "I just mean, we're the only two people who know what this is like so maybe if we work together we'll be able to help, it'll be mutually beneficial. And given your … job … It's only to be suspected that you won't naturally trust me. So if I tell you first then you know I won't hold what you said over you." 

Lisa had never found the Doctor agreeable but in that moment she realised what Cisco saw in her. Despite probably being scared out of her mind she was still putting her thoughts of other's before her own. 

"Fine, but don't expect me to get all buddy with you" Len said in his Cold drawl and Lisa's eye twitched as she tried to stop them from rolling. 

"Well, I definitely feel cold, but it's not uncomfortable, I know it should be but I kind of like it. But for some reason everything I touch matches my body temperature after a second and it's making me uncomfortable. I already miss the heat." 

"Well that's a surprise, you're basically an ice sculpture and you're cold, what a revelation" Len said, rolling his eyes. 

If Lisa could have hit him she would have. 

"Don't be a _dick_ Lenny, she's doing better than you are so cut the crap." Lisa went back to facing Doctor Snow, "So what do you remember before waking up here?" 

And that's when the air around the woman started to look like a mist where she was making it so cold. 

"Snow calm down it's okay you don't have to say anything" 

"No it's fine. I-I remember being on the field and seeing you all run around trying not to get killed … 

 _Caitlin looked_ _around_ _her, desperate to be of some assistance. Even Cisco could help out now after practicing with h_ _is_ _powers_ _,_ _but she was_ _useless unless someone was hurt and she wasn't exactly hoping that would happen._  

 _She heard a cry coming from her left and saw Wally fall onto his knees. He wasn't even meant to be here, but he'd somehow snuck in before them all, insisting on helping out The Flash. Caitlin wasn't sure how he intended on doing that and she was sure that he was going to get an_ _earful_ _when they returned but for now … well for now she'd have to make sure he survived that long. Running over to him she gently helped him lay down on the floor._  

 _"Wally where does it hurt_ _?_ _" He just stared up at her hyperventilating._  

 _"Wally listen to me! I need you to tell me what happened so I can help you! Do this for Iris and Joe, Wally come on"_  

 _Closing his eyes Wally scrunched up his face. When he opened his eye's again he looked determined._  

 _"Z-zoom he just ran past a-and shocked me somehow"_  

 _"Where Wally?"_  

 _"I don't – I don't know, everywhere it hurts every-"_  

 _Wally was cut off as a wave of electricity seemed to roll over his body and he screamed. Caitlin's eyes widened,_ _recognising_ _what it was after seeing the same thing happen to Barry every time he prepared himself to run fast. But Barry was a speedster, his body could deal with_ _this,_ _Wally_ _on the other hand …_  

 _"Wally wait_ _for a second while I grab Peek-a-"_  

 _Suddenly a ripple seemed to blast through the air and at that moment Caitlin felt cold wash over her whole body and she tried to scream but no sound would come out._ _The pain spread through her but she finally isolated it to one place. Looking down at her chest she saw a large shard of ice sticking out of her body. But this ice wasn't just making her cold, it felt like it was sucking all of the heat out of her body. Touching it lightly she looked up, wishing that she could at least have someone there with her. Upon looking up she saw Killer Frost staring back at her, just like Caitlin she had ice_ _impaled in her body_ _, but unlike Caitlin who had only a small piece in her, Frost had something the size of an arm going straight through her stomach. Neither of them were going to survive this and they both seemed to understand._ _Finally collapsing, Caitlin realised that Frost almost seemed to have a smile on her lips, and so did she._  

I thought I was going to die and I wanted to" Caitlin sobbed and Lisa felt her eyes sting. 

"Try not to think any less of me, but Ronnie died and then I finally thought I had someone to help me through that and then I watched him die, and then I watched him as Zoom, I just didn't think I could do it anymore. That's why I lost control when I woke up because I was devastated that I was still alive, it wasn't just Snart, I -" The Doctor covered her mouth with her hands and Lisa reached out to comfort the woman the best she could in this form but before she could Len had already placed a hand on her shoulder. 

"Look, Snow, no one is thinking any less of you. You've been through shit and me and Lees, well lets just say we get that" 

Lisa was surprised that her brother even gave up that much but didn't say anything. 

"Anyway, while you and my sister have been getting all weepy-eyed" Lisa rolled her eyes, there was the brother she knew, "I've thought about our … situation. Now I don't know how _Team Flash_ plan on getting us out of here but I recon if we freeze that door enough then we can get out of here." 

Lisa knew that he was changing the topic before he had to speak about his own experience, but she decided that he could open up in his own time. 

"Well yes," Snow sniffed, "I suppose your plan would work but we'd have to make sure we could stop our powers from spreading too much and I don't know how it would affect the others" 

"Well we'll just have to try" 

"Look Snart I know they don't-" 

"Call me Len, Doctor you're killing me" Lisa's brother never failed to surprise her. 

"Oh sure … Len … call me Caitlin as well, my name isn't 'Doctor' as much as it may surprise you" Len scoffed and Lisa laughed. 

"You were saying _Caitlin?"_  

"You know what, never mind Sn-Len, let's just do this." 

Lisa looked at her brother again and noticed that his skin was no longer covered in frost and his eye's had returned to their normal blue colour, the only thing significantly different was the slight blue tint that seemed to permanently cover his lips. 

"Okay so we're just, we just have to freeze the door?" 

"Sure, shouldn't be too hard" 

Len and Caitlin both placed their hands on the metal doors and Len's eyes started to pale to the white they had been earlier. 

"Lees there's something wrong with the door, it's hotter than it should be" 

Lisa frowned. 

"I bet those idiots are trying to help, just … god Lenny, just give it your all, both of you" 

The determination set itself clearly into both Caitlin and Len's faces as they worked on making the door even colder. 

"We're nearly there!" Caitlin half laughed and then suddenly they both visibly relaxed as the door started to creak and crack down the middle. 

With one final surge of ice the door shattered and the cold shot through the room. 

"Pull it in guys!" Lisa yelled, having seen two figures go flying across the room. 

Len suddenly looked scared and took a few steps back but Lisa noticed that Caitlin had seen one of the people they had hurt. 

"Barry? Oh no" She covered her mouth before walking towards the man as he tried to push himself up onto his hands and knees.  

"Frost?" He whispered before passing out. 

"Snow don't take it to heart okay you're not her" 

"I look like her though don't I?" The woman asked and Lisa opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, knowing she couldn't lie, but still not wanting to tell the truth realising it would hurt the Doctor. 

"I hate to break up this 'life crisis', but my partner looks pretty injured so Lisa if you'd mind getting some help?" 

"Barry's hurt as well" Caitlin snapped and Len rolled his eyes. 

"That's really not my problem now is it" 

"You're so full of -" 

Lisa decided to return to her body, not having the energy to deal with the argument. She gasped as she returned and all eyes snapped towards her. 

"What's happened?" Cisco asked immediately. 

"Well … you'll see when you get up there" 

Just as Shawna was about to get everyone back to the cortex Lisa spoke up again, "Oh and, when you see Caitlin, don't say anything" 

"What do you mean?" Shawna asked and Lisa just shook her head. 

"You'll see" 


	5. Call me Killer Frost ... one more time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Waiting Game - Banks

"Caitlin you need to relax" 

"I am relaxed _Leonard_ , now if you don't mind I'm just making sure we didn't kill these two" 

Leonard just scoffed as Caitlin checked over Barry, he knew as well as she did that it would take more than a bit of an ice blast and a concussion to kill Barry Allen, and she suspected the same applied to Heatwave. 

"Hey Snow? We need you out here for a minute" The two heard Lisa call from inside the cortex and immediately the bit of Barry's skin she was touching started to slowly turn a very pale blue. 

"Frost stop" 

"Don't call me that" Caitlin snapped as she removed her hands from her friends skin. Leonard leaned forward towards the woman, normally this close proximity between her and the criminal would have had her moving backwards but her powers had given her a small, yet significant, boost of confidence and so she held her ground. 

"Why the hell not? You think she's not who people are going to see when they look at you? Might as well use it to your advantage Killer Frost" 

" **Stop** _"_ Caitlin snapped the moment she did her hand flew up to her throat in shock, her voice sounding just like Killer Frost's did when she manipulated it.  

Len raised his eyebrows as if to say 'not Killer Frost huh?', but Caitlin just ignored him and headed towards the door – Leonard could check up on Mick Rory, she'd seen him breathing so that was good enough for now, if anything was really wrong she was sure she would be told. 

Walking into the cortex was a difficult task, she knew it would be. With every step images of the damage Killer Frost had done flashed into her mind, every cringe Cisco had sent her when she had been too _cold_ after Jay had 'died'. But she tried desperately to counteract that with every smile she had received when she had saved one of their lives – Team Flash _or_ A Rogue – and with the thoughts of how Ronnie had made her feel, how warm he had … her thoughts stopped bitterly, she would never feel that warmth again, not in any sense. 

The moment she stepped into the cortex she felt the tension in the room thicken. She knew that they knew it was her and not her evil – dead – counterpart on Earth-2 but it didn't mean that looking at her was any more unnerving.  

"Caitlin?" Cisco asked slowly and the woman rolled her eyes. 

"Cisco would you be professional about this? You didn't gawk this much at Barry when he woke up." 

"Uh yeah but Barry didn't have an evil twin" her friend laughed. 

"Cisco" Lisa snapped and Cisco immediately closed the mouth he seemed to have trouble keeping shut. 

"What happened in here?" Joe asked and Caitlin couldn't help but notice how tense he was, and that his hand kept twitching towards his gun. She couldn't really blame him but it did sting. 

"Well Leonard and I -" Lisa coughed, "And _Li_ _sa_ _,_ figured that we could freeze the door enough to have it break rather than just keeping us trapped. There were the obvious side effects-" Caitlin waved a hand around the slightly frosty room, "-but other than that nothing too bad" 

"What about Barry?" Iris asked and Caitlin smiled at the worry for her brother 

"And Rory?" Mark added. 

"Both of them are fine...ish? They got caught in the blast but they're okay. Leonard's in with them now" 

"So you're all not...evil right?" Wally asked suddenly and Caitlin, along with Lisa and surprisingly Shawna, frowned at him. 

"No I'm just me, I mean sure I look like … like Killer Frost but I'm still me" 

"So you're not going to suddenly go all bad?" 

" _No"_  

"Oh good because honestly that Killer Frost was creepy and sometimes your coldness can be pretty terri-" 

" **Shut up"** Caitlin's voice shifted and as it did Joe stepped in front of Wally and Cisco took a step back away from her. 

"I-I'm sorry I don't know what-" 

"Snow it's okay" 

"No I should, I should probably go" 

As Caitlin ran away from the group towards the corridor of rooms she heard several people shout after her. Reaching her room Caitlin placed her hand on the panel and the door slid open. The minute she reached her bed she collapsed on top of it and let out a small, dry half sob. For the first time Caitlin was glad that Cisco had the idea of everyone getting a room within the building. 

 _"I'm sorry what exactly do we need rooms here for Cisco?"_  

 _"Okay so hear me out, we spend so much time here that sometimes_ _it_ _would be nice to be able to have a little nap without actually having to go all the way home ... besides some of us don't have the money to be renting in the middle of Central City" He cringed as he said the last bit._  

 _"I thought the CCPD were paying you?"_  

 _"Yeah but only when I have something for them, most of the time I'm here working for The Flash"_  

 _"Cisco you know I could -"_  

 _"No I know Caitlin_ _but_ _it's not just that_ _,_ _I really think it would be practical you know"_  

 _She sighed, knowing that she was going to cave in._  

 _"Fine, you can have your rooms but-"_  

 _"What's this about rooms?" Barry asked, appearing in the cortex._  

 _"Cisco has requested that we all, including I_ _ris, Eddie and Wally, have rooms here_ _in_ _STAR labs."_  

 _"Hey that's an awesome idea man"_  

 _"We have to find a place to even put these rooms first!" Caitlin only half protested and Cisco looked sheepish._  

 _"You've already found a place haven't you?"_  

 _"_ _Yeeeesss_ _?"_  

 _Caitlin sighed_ _, "Fine" Cisco grinned, "But I get the biggest" The smile dropped from his face._  

It took Barry around an hour to finish emptying the rooms in the corridor, they had far more than they needed, 12 in total (six on either side). It turned out that the two men had already been slowly making the rooms liveable, Barry had only pretended to not know what Cisco was talking about, but it had got to the point that Caitlin would have noticed. It took them longer than they would have liked to add the toilets and sinks into each of the rooms. Caitlin drew the line at showers in bedrooms ( _fine Cisco we can_ _have_ _shared bathroom_ _s_ _with showers in the storage room at the end of the corridor)_ because she didn't want to encourage permanent residence in STAR labs.  

About three weeks after Cisco mentioned the idea to Caitlin the rooms were ready and they told Iris, Eddie and Wally. Iris asked why they had renovated all 12 rooms when there weren't that many of them and apparently Cisco decided that perhaps their team would grow with more "awesome meta humans". (Caitlin was sure that their current situation was _not_ what Cisco had had in mind) 

Barry and Caitlin argued that Hartley also deserved a room after one particularly successful team up that ended with him falling asleep on a sofa in their living room, and Cisco only pretended to complain. Caitlin pretended not to notice the way Hartley's eyes threatened to spill over with tears when they told him the news. 

The six of them were all on the same side, Eddie and Iris had decided to share a room. This meant that when The Rogue's ended up getting their own rooms after coming back from Earth-2, ten out of the twelve rooms were occupied (Shawna and Mark had also decided to room together. Barry's room was opposite Snart's, Cisco's was opposite Mick, much to the scientists horror, Caitlin and Lisa were opposite each other, something that Caitlin was surprisingly grateful for now, the two couples rooms faced each other, and then Wally and Hartley had empty rooms across from them. 

It was a nice little set up. Caitlin was thankful for it now especially, now that she could curl up and ignore everything else. 

She felt small drops of ice slide down her face and that only prompted her to let out an even louder sob. She would never know what it would be like to be warm again. Her thoughts flashed back to Ronnie, her Ronnie who she lost again and again, even her Earth-2 version didn't get a happy ending with him. He was so kind to her, to everyone, he'd sacrificed himself too many times for other people, Caitlin didn't expect the singularity to be the last time she would ever see him. If she had what would she have said to him? I love you? Don't go? But then that would have been selfish and Ronnie would have gone anyway even if he knew he was going to die. He _did_ know. Caitlin was sure of it, Stein would have known the risk, would have told Ronnie, but that was probably why Stein still couldn't look at her without guilt in his eyes. 

Caitlin was jealous of Stein, she knew it was unfair and that he missed Ronnie probably as much as she did but she couldn't help but think about how unfair it was. Martin was with Ronnie when he died, she could imagine the way he would have said _"Goodbye Ronald,_ _it's_ _been an_ _honour_ _working with_ _you",_ and it was unfair because yet again she wasn't with Ronnie when he died, yet again he died without her by his side. She had failed him. 

And then there was Jay – no, Hunter. Caitlin could never have imagined anyone after Ronnie but he changed that. If only she hadn't been so foolish as to believe she could have that happiness, she might have been able to find out the truth before it had been too late. 

Caitlin rolled over to face the wall, accepting the fact that she was always going to be cold and alone, after all, it's not like she could even touch anyone anymore without killing them. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (also, this is super lame, but the title "call me killer frost ... one more time", is me thinking I'm funny because of the movie Hancock (which is a super awesome film you should check out if you haven't seen it already), where the main character goes "Call me asshole ... one more time". And it just amuses me ... anyway).
> 
> Feel free to comment/kudos/bookmark/subscribe  
> or even come talk to me on tumblr at perilofachopshop.tumblr.com :')


	6. The man in the mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len realises who Lisa has been seeing in the mirror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kill of the night - Gin Wigmore

Leonard Snart, since he was young, had liked to have complete control over every situation he was put in. It helped in his line of work not to be surprised and to know exactly what to expect. Of course some things could not be controlled. His father's lessons, despite how barbaric they had been, had in fact allowed him to learn what to do in those few times he wasn't in control. They taught him how to keep his expression emotionless, how to stop others from knowing how he was really feeling. 

And that was the first problem Len had with his powers. The man couldn't hide anything with this metahuman abilities, not the slightest bit of anger, or concern, no. It would all present itself as a chill that would slowly cover the room. Most of the time he didn't even realise that he'd done anything, finally feeling that he'd controlled his powers. That would be until Cisco would cry out and beg Snart to stop freezing them all. 

It had been a week and he hadn't made any progress. And worst of all, something was wrong with his sister, but she was worried about him so hadn't been saying anything. 

Len watched his sister as she sat across the room. He'd been watching her non stop for the entire week now and had slowly started to notice a pattern. As if on queue Lisa looked up, and upon catching a glimpse of the mirror in front of her she paled. 

Was it that she couldn't stand to look at herself and see that she was different? Not that it really showed on her, other than the bright blonde hair she now sported, but then it could be worse, Snow had white hair and that was a lot more obvious. No, there was something else going on and Len was going to be damned if he didn't find out today. 

"Lisa, a word" Len called as he started to walk out of the room and he wasn't surprised that his sister followed. 

They made it to his room and as Lisa came in she shut the door behind her. 

Len's room had been kept relatively plain, the only personal belongings he had were his clothes and one picture of him, Lisa and Mick. He wasn't one for sentiments.  

"Is there something you wanted Lenny?" Lisa asked and despite her trying to hide it, there was a slight tension to her usually melodic voice. 

"You need to tell me what's going on and you're not leaving until you do"  

"You mean other than the fact that I have these abilities now? That's a rather hard thing to get used to big brother, surely you know what I mean" 

Lisa was trying to irritate Len but it wasn't working, "I would almost believe that sis, if you wasn't as good as I am at adapting. No, there is something else going on and _you are_ going to tell me" 

"Oh am I now?" Lisa smirked but the resistance in her face lessened and Len knew he had won. 

"Lisa tell me what's going on?" 

Lisa sighed and walked towards her brother's bed, sitting down on it. 

"Since … since I woke up there's, God I don't know how to explain it Len I think I'm going mad. Every time I've looked in a mirror there's been this guy staring back at me, yelling something that I can't hear and he looks so scared but I don't know what to do. No one else can see him Lenny and I think somethings wrong with me" 

A man in a mirror? Perhaps it's one of their enemies trying to trick Lisa? But seeing as it has only been happening after the explosion it must be someone that was affected then. 

But then everyone has been accounted for … except … 

"Lisa what does this man look like?" 

"I don't know, he's blonde, he's quite pretty I guess?" 

"Come with me" 

Len grabbed his sister by the arm and started to pull her through STAR labs until they reached the cortex. 

"West?" He snapped and both Wally and Iris lifted up their head, Snart sighed. 

"Iris?" 

"What do you want Snart?" 

"Your lost partner, have you got a picture of him" 

"Of course I do, but why should that concern you?" 

"Oh it doesn't" Len drawled, "However I would _highly_ reccomend that you show my dear sister." 

Iris frowned for a moment before opening her phone and flicking through it for a moment. When she found a picture she walked towards Lisa and showed her the phone, the minute Lisa saw the phone she blanched and stumbled backwards. 

Len grinned, he loved being right. 

"Lisa what's wrong? Do you know where Eddie is?" 

"I-I think so" 

"Wally get Cisco _now"_ Iris half yelled and within a few seconds Cisco was in front of them. 

"Woah what's up guys?" Seeing Lisa's face Cisco walked towards her and grabbed her hand, "Lisa are you okay?" 

Lisa laughed, "If you count okay as seeing your friends supposedly missing husband everywhere then yeah" 

Everyone stared at her waiting for an explanation. 

"I think you should probably call in the rest of the team for this" 

Cisco nodded and pressed a button on their control pad, sending out an alarm through the entire of STAR labs. 

It took five minute's for the whole team to arrive, even Snow, but Len noticed that much like him, she kept closer to the corner of the room. 

"What's up guys? Cisco you know that alarm is for when we're under attack right?" Barry sighed and Len guessed that Ramon had a habit of using the alarm for the wrong things. 

"This is just as important Barr" Iris said and everyone went silent, but then Iris motioned towards Lisa and suddenly all eyes were on her. 

"So when I woke up I started to notice this guy in a mirror every time I looked. But the thing is, none of you could see him and so I thought … I thought I was just going mad" 

"Why didn't you say something Lisa?" Shawna asked as she smiled sadly at her friend. 

"I didn't want to worry anyone, and I didn't think anything of it. But the thing is, I've just been shown a picture of Eddie and … guys it's him" 

A few people gasped and the rest of them frowned. 

"How come's no one else can see him then?" Wally asked and Joe nodded in support of his question. 

"It actually makes sense" Hartley cut in, "After all, Lisa has a link to this between reality with her asteral projection, so if Eddie really is in a state that isn't solid like ours it's understandable that Lisa can see him?" 

"But how are we going to get him out?" Iris asked and she sounded so heartbroken that Barry came forward and took her hand. 

"Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Lisa could also enter this 'mirror world' so to speak" 

"Not going to happen until you can guarantee her safety Piper" Len snapped  

"You don't get to decide that Snart" Barry argued and it took all of Len's strength to not roll his eyes. 

"Don't worry about it Doll, he get's like that when he's sister's involved" Mick added 

Wait _doll?_ What was that about. 

Len stared at the two men for a moment, noticing how comfortable they were around eachother, how they stood within a foot of the other. Len's eyes narrowed ... surely not? 

"I'm going to do it" Lisa said and before Len could even argue she had abandoned her body and started to glide across the room. 

Len felt a flash of anger wash through him and he pretended not to notice everyone starting to shiver, or the way their breath formed little clouds in front of their face. He definitely ignored the way Snow grinned at him from the corner of the room. 

"Lenny stop sulking or I'll get Mark to rain on you" 

Len snapped his head towards Mardon and the man put his hands up in surrender, "Wouldn't dream of it Boss" 

Len watched as his sister raised her hand up towards the mirror, nodding her head at it, probably at Thawne. Len decided then that if they did get Thawne back, he was going to kill him himself. 

Suddenly Lisa's hand started to go through the mirror and it was different than when she would walk through a wall. Instead of looking like she was passing through, the glass seemed to ripple under her. 

She kept moving forward until she completely disappeared. 

Len and Cisco ran over to the mirror. 

"Where did she go Ramon?" Len snarled as he loomed over the scientist. 

"I don’t - I don't know okay" 

"Well fucking fix it" 

Len felt his hand twitch at his side and it started to cover in ice. Cisco's eyes widen as he took a few steps back. 

"Look man we'll get her back calm down" 

"This is me calm Ramon" 

He took a step forward and Cisco let out a high pitched scream and raised his hands. Len was about to laugh but then found himself half flying across the room, hitting a wall and falling to the floor.  

He stood up and glared at the man who had his hands up in surrender. 

"I am so sorry that wasn't meant to happen, I thought you were going to attack me and – please don't kill me" The man squeaked. 

Len was just about to drop the temperature in the room when he heard Caitlin laugh. 

"What's so funny _Frost?"_ Len drawled and was impressed to see that the woman didn't even flinch at the name. 

"What's funny _Cold,_ is that you're all so self involved, none of you have even realised that Lisa and Eddie are back" 

Everyone's heads snapped towards the mirror and they saw Lisa standing there, no longer in her astral projection, holding Thawne bridal style in her arms. 

"You two" She snarled, looked between Cisco and Len and narrowed her eyes, "in the living room _now_ and I'll be having a word in a minute." 

She carried the man into one of the medical rooms connecting to the Cortex, and Snow and Iris walked in the room behind her. 

Len and Cisco walked out of the cortex to make their way into the living room and left the rest of them behind. Lisa followed after them a moment later. 

Barry sighed, he had been worried about everyone the last few weeks but Len and Caitlin had been the one's he was worried about the most. 

The weird friendship that had been forming between Len and Caitlin had troubled him even further, and the fact that both of them seemed so … isolated now was something he was concerned about. 

Everyone heard shouting coming from the other room and both Hartley and Mark winced. 

When it finally stopped Barry decided to go and talk to Len himself, it had been weird for him, going for talking to him all of the time to nothing at all. Before all of this happened, they had almost had a sort of friendship going, but since waking up Len hadn't even said a word to him. 

Lisa and Cisco passed Barry on his way and it was good to see them holding hands. Lisa was a tough girl but if had any weakness other than her brother and Mick, it was Cisco. 

Barry walked into the living room to see Len standing there playing with a ring on his finger and staring at a wall. 

"Hey" Barry said to make his presence known. 

The man turned to look at him and snorted. 

"Came to give me another lecture _Barry?_ Well save it" 

Barry frowned, "No actually I came to see if you was okay, I know this must be hard for you-" 

Len laughed, "Oh you know do you Barry?" 

"Yes I do. But I also know that you have lot of people that care about you, so you don't have to go through this alone" 

Barry was met with a raised eyebrow. "People like you Barry?" 

"I meant The Rogues, but yes, you have me as well" 

"Mick told me that you would check on us everyday" 

Barry blushed, "You were both my responsibility" 

"Yes well, Mick certainly described the concern to be more one sided" 

The mans smirk had Barry blushing even further, Mick was a traitor. 

"What's your point Snart?" 

"Mm, my point is _Barry,_ is that you don't know me" 

"I didn't-" 

"You think just because you came to cry over me every day that we're suddenly friends?" 

"No" Barry snapped, "I think we're friends because of before what happened, the jokes and the teaming up? That's what made us friends Len" 

"Before? That was just me making the best out of a situation, I doubt you would have been so relaxed with The Rogue's if we were enemies. And it's Cold to you Barry" 

Barry winced and Len stepped closer, getting into the younger man's space. 

"I don't know who you thought you was talking to while I was out, I don't care, but whoever it was Flash, isn't me. It's not my fault you've been living in a fantasy for the past month" Snart snarled the last few words and Barry stepped away. 

With one last glare the older man pushed past Barry and walked out of the room. 

Barry wasn't sure how long he was standing there for before Mick walked into the room. 

"Don't worry about it doll" 

Barry closed his eyes, "I just- I thought we were at least friends and now it's just, it's so embarrassing. I feel like some stupid kid" 

"Well you're not stupid" Mick chuckled and Barry glared at him. 

"Look, Len is an odd one, the more people mean to him the more he pushes them away. You think me and Lisa would be here if we'd put up with all his crap? Besides Len is feeling vulnerable at the moment, can't properly pretend to be that 'cool' and relaxed guy he likes to pretend to be, give him time doll" 

"Thanks Mick" 

"Don't mention it. Come on, I'm hungry and the West's are cooking" 

Barry's stomach grumbled at the thought, and the food to come was enough to take his mind off of Captain Cold. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so there was a MAJOR delay because I had a few chapters in front of this complete and I literally couldn't even think of a way to finish it, literally the last few sentences, then it started to dislike it and kept rewriting it and I still don't really like it but whatever D:
> 
> So anyway the next few just need a bit of work and then yay!!


	7. It's not jealousy it's practicality.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cold twins are obsessed with Barry and Mick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blank Space - Taylor Swift

Len sat at the end of the table with Snow.  

When he had been all but summoned to dinner, he'd at least thought he would be able to walk back to his room and have a choice about where to eat like the adult he was but apparently not. Lisa had glared at him and told him to _sit_ _at the god damn table Lenny._  

Then, Len had assumed that it would be The Rogues at one end, with Team Flash at the other. 

He was wrong ... again. 

Rogues and Team Flash alike sat mingled with eachother and Len wasn't going to lie it made him uncomfortable. What about when they started up their heists again and this, whatever this was, got in the way of all that? To make it even worse they were friendly with each other. 

Len watched as everyone wove in and out of each other to help sort out the table, he watched as Lisa, Shawna and Iris sat in a group and giggled at what each woman was saying. He saw how Wally was stealing chips off of Mardon's plate whenever the man looked away, using his powers for evil already. Len tutted to himself, maybe he could get the kid to join him. Probably not though, what with Joe West as a father and The Flash as a mentor. 

Len looked at The Flash and narrowed his eyes. He _was not_ a jealous person, but it was a tactical disadvantage to have Mick so invested in the kid. He watched as the two men laughed with each other and Barry grabbed onto Micks arm as he bent forward, gasping for breath. Even Joe West seemed okay with this. 

Mick looked up and Len narrowed his eyes even further, he followed Len's eyes to where Barry's hand now rested comfortably on Mick's arm.  

Mick raised an eyebrow and then smirked at his partner, before flinging his arm around Barry's shoulders. Barry only paused for a second, before continuing his conversation with Mardon and Piper as if nothing had happened. 

Len's partner must have known that Len saw the future disadvantage this ... relationship? would have on their criminal activities, which was why he was deliberately irritating the man. 

"Yo Captain Cold can you chill out please?" 

Everyone laughed and Len's eye's snapped towards the scientist. He looked down at his hands and realised that they had frosted over.  

"Apologies" Len drawled and everybody went back to eating. 

"Jealous much?" Caitlin laughed quietly. 

"What are you talking about Frost? I'm not jealous of Mick I just see that-" 

The woman laughed so loudly that a few people at the table paused for a moment before continuing their conversations. 

"I wasn't on about Mick, Leonard." 

Len frowned, "I don't know if you were told about what Barry-" 

"I don't care what Barry did while we were under, that isn't what matters. You two had this weird flirting-" 

"It was just banter" Len cut in and Snow narrowed her eyes at the man. 

"Flirting friendship going on, but since you've woke up you've tried to pretend that he doesn't even exist." 

"He doesn't mean anything to me Frost, don't pretend like what ... the situation before was anything more than a mutually beneficial situation" 

"Doesn’t mean anything? Then why is it the temperature drops every time he and Mick even talk to each other? Oh don't give me that look Leonard, they might not be able to feel the small changes but I can" 

"What you _feel_ is me realising that Mick is just going to get hurt in the end" 

"Mick? Oh I'm sure he can handle himself, but can you?" 

Len frowned to himself, staring down at his plate completely uninterested in eating anything. 

"Uh guys, code mirror" Cisco interrupted suddenly. 

"Code mirror?" Len sighed. 

"Eddie!" Iris gasped and stood up from the table, running out of the room. 

Everyone jumped out of their seats and started to leave the room, everyone but Caitlin or Len. 

"You guys coming?" Barry asked, hoping that they would. 

"You go ahead Barry" Caitlin said 

"We'll stay out of the way for the moment, wouldn't want to _freeze_ the guys arm off or anything" Len added. 

Barry sighed, "Look Caitlin we could use your help if-" 

"If there is a problem you know where I am" Cait snapped and Barry stared at his friend sadly before giving up and walking out of the room. 

As Barry walked out of the room he couldn't help but notice the agitated twitch Len's mouth made. It looked almost like a smirk but Barry knew better. It was as if just having to speak to Barry annoyed Cold. 

Well if that's how he wanted to behave. 

And Barry didn't miss the daggers Cold had been shooting him while he was sitting at the table. 

Every time Mick even said a word to him it seemed to piss the man off. He got that Mick was his partner, but was it so bad that the man now had other friends? If anything it seemed to be helping because Mick was no longer as reckless and this sense of a team seemed to be making him better. Was Cold really that selfish? That he would want to take that from Mick just because it made him what ... jealous? 

Barry walked into the room to see everyone crowding around the bed. They moved out of the way for him, everyone but Iris who was sitting in the chair holding onto Eddie's hand. 

"Hey man" 

Eddie smiled and Barry immediately felt lighter, Eddie just had that kind of affect. 

"Barry! I've missed you" 

Barry leant in and gave him a hug, "Me too Eddie, we've all missed you" 

There was silence as everyone figured out a way to ask what had happened but Eddie beat them to it. 

"I take it you want to know what went on?" 

Barry grimaced but nodded his head. 

"Uh well …" Eddie laughed, "So I tried to go through the portal as you know, but just as I stepped onto Earth-2 I was thrown back by something. Next thing I know I was flying through the portal again but as I came through it felt like a storm was spinning around me, I think maybe that it was damaged?" Barry nodded, "-Anyway, next thing I know I can see you all as if you're right in front of me but every time I- every t-time -" Eddie closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, "Everytime I tried to talk to you guys, or w-wave it was as if none of you could see me. Apart from her"  

Every looked up from Eddie towards Lisa, "I'm sorry Thawne, I didn't-" 

"No it's fine, how could you have known" 

The silence in the room became thick and Barry knew that everyone wondered what it must have been like for Eddie, to be able to see the one's he loved for so long without being able to comfort them, without being able to tell them that he was okay. 

"On the plus side guys, I know everything that's been going on so I don't need to be caught up" Eddie smiled brightly and Iris covered her mouth as a small sob came out of her. 

"Hey, hey Iris it's okay. A minute please guys?" 

Eddie leaned over to hug Iris as everyone walked out of the room to give them some privacy. 

"You alright doll?" Mick asked and Barry looked up at his friend. 

"Yeah Mick I-" 

"A word _Mick_ " Snart interrupted Barry and the younger man frowned. 

Mick just shrugged and followed him out of the room and through the corridors. 

"Alright what've you dragged me to your room for Len?" 

Len stared at his partner for a minute and Mick knew that the man had dropped the temperature in the room a few degrees but he just chuckled as he increased his own body temperature. 

"I've noticed a lot of difference's since I've woke up, such as this friendship between the rogue's and team flash, for example you and-" 

"The kid?" Mick offered and his partners frown deepened at his grin. 

"Mick, whatever's going on between you two-" 

"Don't know what you mean boss" Mick smirk grew bigger and he could almost see Len counting to calm himself down. 

"I mean this relationship you have going on" 

"Ohh that? Making you jealous Lenny?" 

Len frowned, "It's not practical Mick, what about when it come's around to our next heist?" 

"You managed so far ain't ya Len? Don't see why the rest of us can't" 

"This is clearly different" 

"mm is it?" 

"Yes Mick, no one is as _invested_ as you are" 

"What about you and the Doctor? Don't think I've not noticed" 

Len rolled his eyes, "That's different Mick" 

Mick just nodded with a smirk on his face. 

"Mick you know she's not exactly my type" 

"Shit happens Lenny" 

Len's eyes narrowed and then he sighed. 

"You know what just get out Mick, you're giving me a headache." 

"Whatever you say boss" Mick opened the door and started walking back down the corridor. 

Just as he was about to reach the end he caught a glimpse of Snow in her room.  

Mick frowned, she was sitting on her bed with a picture in her lap and she'd clearly forgot to shut her door. The man shook his head and decided that it wasn't any of his business before turning around the corner and walking towards the lounge. He was half way there when he growled and turned back to go the way he'd just come from. This was clearly Barry's fault. A few months ago and he wouldn't have cared if the woman was crying … but now. 

Reaching her room Mick decided to knock on the wall next to the door. 

The woman's head shot up and she frowned. 

"Here to kidnap me again Mick? I don't think Barry will forgive you this time." 

"You and Len really are obsessed with our friendship ain't ya?" Mick decided to ignore the first comment, for both of their sakes. 

"Friendship?" She raised an eyebrow, "That's not what it looks like." 

Mick snorted, "Please, that's just me trying to get Snart to admit he likes the kid" 

Caitlin's face went blank, "oh" 

The silence started to become awkward and Mick grunted, "I mean have you seen the way the two act around each other, it's starting to give me a toothache" 

The woman laughed and then frowned at the sound, as if she hadn't expected it. "They are pretty ridiculous aren't they?" 

"That's one way ta put it" 

"They were even worse before, you should've heard them on the comms, it was almost embarrassing to listen to. And then-" 

"and then teaming up made them even worse?" 

Caitlin laughed and didn't even flinch this time. 

"Honestly! Cisco and I nearly put a bet on how long it would be until they got together. I mean that was before … you know" 

"I know" 

"Was he really as bad as I heard he was?" 

Mick sighed, "He was ... worse. The kid blamed himself, after being the one to convince Snart to be a hero and all. You should've seen him when … Let's just say it wasn't pretty" 

Mick walked towards the door, having walked towards the Doctor without realising it, and as he was about to open it Caitlin said his name, in a way that was uncharacteristically shy for her. 

"yeah?" 

"I just wanted to say thank you for looking after Barry" 

Mick paused, not really sure what to say, not used to being thanked. So instead he just nodded and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> caitlin needs to be protected


	8. I can't (part one)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin tries to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gasoline - Halsey

The team meating wasn't going well. Everyone was there apart from Wally, Iris and Eddie who had all gone home to grab Eddie's bits to bring back to the labs. But no one was concentrating on the actual problem. 

"Look we don't need the entire team flashrogue ... rogueflash ... fla-" 

"Cisco!" Barry snapped. 

"Yeah right sorry. We don't need all of you to go alright? It's just two metas and sending everyone will give our teams tactical advantage away too soon, got to save it for the big fight" 

"The big fight?" Joe raised his eyebrow and Cisco shrugged. 

"What? We all know it's been too quiet for a long time, somethings got to come up soon" 

"Some of us are getting bored _Vibe"_  

"Oh go kick up a storm some place else _Weather Wizard"_ Hartley snapped back 

"Watch yourself Piper" Mark growled and took a step forward. 

Barry groaned as Hartley just stood taller. 

"I'd like to see you make me" 

"Both of you step down now" Cold interrupted and almost immediately, _almost_ , both men walked away from each other scowling. "What are these metas' abilities? If we're going to catch them we need to know their weaknesses" 

"Well, our two lovely ladies have very different powers -" 

"Why would they even have the same powers?" Shawna interrupts, "The only people have that have the same powers are Barry and Wally?" 

"That's not … Look it just sounded more dramatic. Anyway, the point is our first woman seems to have some 'blast function' similar to me and Hartley, now we're not sure what sort of power she's using to do this, but because she can fly we're thinking that she uses this energy to do so somehow. The Blonde lady on the other hand has some sort of lightning power, but we're not sure how far that extends yet, she could just project it, but for all we know she could absorb the lightning as well." 

"So what you're telling us, is that most of what you know is guess work?" Len drawled 

"It's an educated guess" Cisco replied in defence. 

"I'm not sending my team out there if we don’t know every detail."  

"They're our team now as well" 

"No, they're your _friends_ now, I still lead the Rogues don't you forget that." 

Len's eyes started to turn white and Barry stepped forward putting a hand on the mans shoulder. Barry expected him to flinch away but he simply turned his head to look at Barry. 

"Look Snart I know we haven't worked together since the whole incident, but we have before and we're good as a team – all of us working together – and now we're even more powerful." 

"It's not all about power kid"  

Barry felt his hand start to go cold and he tried not to shiver, it was also slightly freaking him out looking into completely white eyes. 

"Have faith Snart, besides Cisco's never been wrong about a metas powers before and at least we know something. It's better we find out the extend of them on us anyway, rather than innocent citizens." 

"You may not mind being a punching bag _Barry,_ but I'm not willing to let my team get hurt when it could have been avoided." 

"Barry" Caitlin suddenly spoke up and even though it surprised him, Barry refused to look away from Leonard. 

"You know I won't let anyone get hurt Len" 

"You can't promise that Flash" 

Barry's hand was stinging by this point and it took all of his willpower not to rip his hand away. 

"I can, I promise that I will put your team first before even my own safety" 

Len smirked, "Even if it put your life at risk?" 

"Even if it killed me" 

Len frowned but before either could continue Caitlin snapped "Barry!" again and he finally looked at her. 

"Barry your hand!" 

Barry lifted his hand up to stare at it, it had gone an ugly purple colour and started to sting so badly it felt like it had been burnt. 

"Let me sort it out, I can't believe you were so reckless!" She scowled at him and reached out to grab his uncovered arm. 

Len's white eyes suddenly became clear and wide, "Frost wait!" 

But it was too late, the moment her hand made contact with Barry's arm a layer of frost formed around it and her hand was stuck. 

Barry gasped as his whole body started to go cold. 

"Let go!" Len snapped. 

Caitlin looked at Barry frantically, "I can't! I can't let go I can't!" 

"You have to calm down Frost or you're going to kill him!" 

And those words Barry felt another wave of coldness wash over his body and he fell to his knees. Barry tried to hold back a scream as he knelt there, this wasn't the same kind of cold he felt when he'd been hit with the cold gun, instead it felt like his whole body had turned against him and the heat was draining out of him. 

Barry saw the edges of his vision start to fade and he swayed slightly. 

"Snow it's going to be okay, you just have to relax" A new voice said, but Barry was too dizzy to place it. 

He heard Caitlin let out a sob as she frantically shook her hand, pulling Barry about as she did so. 

The coldness finally reached his chest and just as he let out a scream he heard Snart yell "Mick no!" before collapsing to the floor and loosing consciousness.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this is super short which is why I'm uploading part two straight away.  
> "But why not make it one chapter?" You ask.  
> Well dear reader I just felt that it suited being two separate chapters more. Hopefully you'll agree with me ... maybe not though.  
> Either way I hope you enjoyed.


	9. I can't (part two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mick isn't sure everything that's happened has been all bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leaving songs from my Coldflash playlist at the beginning of each chapter (added them to previous chapters also). They don't necessarily match the chapter but I thought it would be cute to share with you all!
> 
>  
> 
> You can't hurry love - The supremes (Yes this is because of Tumbling Together)

"You have to calm down Frost or you're going to kill him!" 

Mick rolled his eyes at the stupidity of Snart's words, that wasn't going to help. 

Barry gasped and Mick watched as his friend fell to his knees. The kid couldn't die like this, Snow would never forgive herself. Hell, Len would never forgive himself either. 

Mick took a step forward and reached out towards the Doctor without touching her. 

"Snow it's going to be okay, you just have to relax" 

The woman sobbed and small bits of ice fell down her face, she shook her hand trying to detach it from Barry's body. Mick saw the kid's eyes start to close and decided to act on one of the top three stupid decisions he'd ever made in his life. 

Raising his body temperature Mick stepped into the Doctors space and she looked at him with such fear in her eye's that Mick could only give her a sad smile. 

"It's going to be okay Doc" he whispered 

"Mick no!" Len yelled, guessing what the man was about to do, just as Barry let out a scream. 

Mick wrapped his arms around the Doctors body and she gasped.  

The hand on Barry's arm became unstuck and the second it did Shawna and Cisco ran over to deal with him. Shawna looked over to the medical room and put a hand of both men before appearing in there, where she lifted Barry up onto the bed and both her and Cisco started to deal with their friend quickly, knowing exactly what to do. 

"You're not – Y-you" 

"Not dead?" Mick snorted, not letting go of the woman, "apparently not. How're you feeling?" 

"Normal. I always feel so cold and now I feel normal." She let out a sob again and this time real tears slid down her face. She touched them slowly and looked at her hand then at Mick. "Thank you" Her hair started to go back to it's normal colour and she stared at him with her brown eyes, instead of the blue they'd been since waking up.

"S'alright Doc" 

"N-no I mean it. Did you even know you would survive that" 

Mick snorted, "Educated guess" 

"Everyone out now" Len snapped and with only a few complaints the rest of the group walked out of the cortex. "You okay Snow?" The man asked slowly. 

"Don't drop the 'Frost' now Leonard or I'll think you're going soft on me" 

He chuckled a little bit and raised his eyebrows, "Is that so?" 

"I'm sorry about Barry" Caitlin looked between Mick and Len. "I know he means a lot to both of you" 

The softer look on Len's face disappeared and was instantly replaced with a hardened one. 

"I don't know what you mean" 

"Sure you do Len don't play stupid" Mick growled and Len glared at him. 

Mick would be damned if Len didn't visit the kid after what happened to him. He knew his friend wanted to see Barry and would only torture himself further if he didn't. 

He was about to speak out but Caitlin beat him to it, "Look Leonard, I know you're worried about letting people in okay, believe me I know-" 

"Oh really" Len snarled. 

"Do not interrupt me" Caitlin snapped back and Mick laughed at the fact that someone could finally match his friend for coldest glare. "I won't pretend to know what's going on with you two because honestly no one here has a _damn clue._ But what I do know is that he means more to you than you've been pretending since you woke up. I know you've watched the videos of when we were asleep so I know you know how Barry feels about you. He's lost a lot of people Leonard, I won't let him lose you too because you're too scared-" 

"I'm not scared"  

"What did I say about interruptions! And yes you are Leonard! It may not be the kind of scared Barry feels when he's up against a meta, it may not be the scared I felt when I nearly killed one of my best friends, but it's still fear! You're worried whatever this is between the two of you won't last? Get over yourself! Barry's been worrying himself silly over you and sure I haven't helped but don't for a minute insult me by pretending like you have it just as bad as me because other than Mick I can't even touch anyone okay? I can't have someone there to comfort me but you can! You have someone willing to so get over yourself for crying out loud!" 

Len stared with his mouth dropped open and if the doctor hadn't sounded so angry Mick probably would've laughed. 

Len shut his mouth and didn't bother putting up his usual mask because Mick knew that around Caitlin, for some reason Len didn't feel like he had to hide. "I'll … I'll check on him when they've made sure he's okay" 

"Thank you Leonard" 

Len just nodded and walked back to his room. 

Mick hoped that Len sorted this out with the kid soon for both of their sakes because before the blast they had, as Caitlin said, a weird relationship that no one could really pinpoint. There was certainly more flirting than the two had realised. 

 _"Almost too slow there Captain Cold_ _" Barry laughed over the_ _comms_ _as Len just about avoided a blast from their newest dangerous meta. She shot out glass from her hands and no one really wanted to be the pin doll for her. A team up had been necessary, at least that's what Len had argued._  

 _"You should be the one to watch out there Flash, you're getting a bit hot headed, chill out for a minute and maybe we'll be able to catch her"_  

 _Everyone groaned._  

 _"You two are insufferable" Cisco half cried and Len just chuckled_ _._  

 _"Cis-Vibe!"_  

 _"Hell yeah I'm Vibe" Cisco sounded far too proud and Len rolled his eyes._  

 _"Back to the task, I have a plan. Vibe you need to knock her back with your blasts until she's under the loose pipes. Then I'll blast them with my gun -"_  

 _"No deaths Cold!" Barry suddenly yelled and Len held back a sigh._  

 _"Did the Detective_ _never tell you that interrupting was rude Flash?" Len tutted and could almost feel Barry's blush from across the warehouse._ _"_ _As I was saying, I'll freeze the pipes and then when she looks up – distracted – Flash you cuff her with the power blockers."_  

 _"A whole team and none of you are a match for The Reflector" The woman laughed._  

 _"I hated it when they name themselves" Cisco pouted._  

 _"Now Vibe!" Len hissed and Cisco stepped out of his hiding spot._  

 _If Len did say so himself, the plan went very well._  

 _After they had her in cuffs Barry dropped her off at the_ _pre_ _cinct_ _to be carted off to the meta-wing in the prison. Len decided that he'd make his own way back to the safe house where he knew the Rogue's were waiting, listening over Hartley's_ _comms_ _._  

 _A sudden gust of air blew past Len and he mock sighed, stopping in his tracks._  

 _"Something you needed Barry?"_  

 _The kid blushed a bit and ran his hands over his still masked head._  

 _"I uh, I just wanted to apologise for earlier, I should've known that you wasn't going to kill her"_  

 _"Mm but should you Barry, after all I am a criminal and a killer"_  

 _"You were a killer Len, but you're more than that now, you're a hero"_  

 _Len walked forward until he was too close into Barry's space to justify._  

 _"Is that so Barry? Or perhaps it's just you being naïve?"_  

 _Barry laughed, "No I know you're a hero. You may not believe it yourself but I believe in you. I know you're more than who you used to be and you show that everyday."_  

 _Len was hyper aware of how close Barry was to him, the kid having moved even closer as he spoke. Len was about to reply when he heard a cough over the_ _comms_ _, he winced realising he forgot to turn them off. From the cringe on Barry's face, so had he._  

 _"Uh guys I hate to break this up_ _buuuut_ _… " Cisco started._  

 _"This is getting embarrassing for us" Hartley finished and Len heard his Rogue's laugh in the background._  

 _Len felt his stomach clench and he took a step back. "Be seeing you Barry" He muttered before walking past the man._  

"Mick you um..." Caitlin muttered and Mick realised that he was still holding his arms around the front of the woman. 

He removed his hands and immediately her skin started to pale again, hair going white and eyes blue. 

She laughed, "Well that was great while it lasted. Thanks again". She started to walk out of the room and for a moment all Mick could do was stare at her and try to find a way not to be embarrassed by what he was about to say. 

"Uh Doc?" 

The woman turned around and Mick shifted under her gaze.

"You … y'know what ya said earlier about not having anyone to comfort you?" He coughed, pushing down his discomfort, "You can always ask me. I mean if you get sick of the cold I mean ... or need someone to actually touch – wait not like that I mean if you need-" 

"Thank you Mick" She interrupted before he could humiliate himself further. 

With that she walked out of the room and Mick could only shake his head and wonder how they'd ended up like this. Everyone in this god damn building was a fraction of the person they used to be, a honestly Mick wasn't sure if that was a bad thing. At least he knew it wasn't for him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay yes I know the flashback was from Len's point of view *gasp of horror at the sudden change* (I usually make it more gradual) BUT, I felt it would be better because then you would get a better idea of what their 'relationship' used to be like!! xx
> 
> (also explanation of Mick's nickname for Barry in the next chapter!)


	10. Are we friends now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len thinks back to before everything got messy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toxic - A Static Lullaby

Len reached the room they’d put Barry in within a couple of minutes, standing at the doorframe he watched the boy on the bed. His skin was still paler than usual and even in sleep he wouldn’t stop shivering, the part of his arm Caitlin had grabbed was still an ugly purple colour.

As Len watched the kid shiver on the bed he tried to ignore the way his chest tightened when he realised that one day he would take a risk too big and might not come out the other end. The Flash had a hero complex too big for his own good and it was going to kill him if he didn’t stop trying to save everyone.

 

 

_“Why would we need your help Captain Cold?” Cisco sneered from next to Barry, Caitlin standing behind them both. Len wasn’t sure why they were being so protective when he’d come alone, sure he had his gun but that was a given._

_“We’ve helped each other out before **Vibe** surely this time isn’t any different?” Len chuckled._

_“Yeah you’ve helped us out when it’s benefitted you, let’s not pretend it was out of the generosity of your heart Cold”_

_Len shrugged at that, he couldn’t deny that there was some element of truth in Ramon’s statement._

_“With that masked freak around it puts the Rogues at risk and I’m not willing to put their lives on the line”_

_“You’ll be doing that anyway, if they join us in the fight” Cisco argued._

_“I might lose a Rogue or two if we take the fight to Zoom, I could lose all of them if we wait around any longer. It’s a calculated risk.”_

_The Doctor scoffed at that and Len just tilted his head slightly to the side before looking directly at Barry._

_“Do you think you can do it just you lot?”_

_Barry stared at him for a few moments before whispering out “No”. Len nearly frowned as he heard the fear in the kids voice. He’d gone against a lot of people in his line of work and Len couldn’t understand why this Zoom guy scared Barry so much._

_Len smirked at Cisco but it didn’t have the usual bite behind it, “Then we’ll be here tomorrow to put together a plan”._

_It didn’t take him long to get back to the safe house, walking straight past all of the Rogue’s to his room, he decided he could fill them all in later._

_Opening his laptop he typed in ‘_ The Flash / Zoom _’ and raised an eyebrow at the amount of articles on the two. What really caught his attention however was the top article titled “The Fall of the Flash”. Clicking on it Len narrowed his eyes when a video popped up rather than an article, sighing he pressed play._

_Nothing could’ve prepared Len for watching that video. He blanched as he saw that monster hold Barry up for the whole world to see, the kids body looking like a rag doll in his hands. Now he knew why the kid was so scared, there was no way he could beat him._

_Shutting the laptop Len gave himself a moment to relax, irritated with himself for letting something so stupid about someone who shouldn’t even matter to him work him up so much._

_He walked out of his room and downstairs to the meeting room where all of the Rogues were waiting for him._

_“What’s the plan boss?” Mick asked, getting straight to the point._

_“We’re going to help Flash and his little team get rid of this - ” Lisa scoffed and Len narrowed his eyes at her, “Got something to say sis?”_

_“Oh come on Lenny, we all knew we’d be helping out your boy in red, everyone here knew it” Len looked around the room, narrowing his eyes even further, aware the suddenly everyone had a problem looking at him._

_“I don’t care who it is we’re helping, we could be teaming up with the Santini family for all it’s worth.” Len drawled, angry that he was being this predictable but trying not to show it, “It’s about the fact that if we let this creep run around any longer there won’t be any City for us to rob”_

_“Or we could wait for the freak to eliminate the Flash, then defeat him on our own” Mark suggested and as he finished speaking Len heard Lisa sigh and Mick mutter “Bad move” under his breath._

_“Are you an idiot Mardon?” Len half growled, and before the man could even reply he yelled “ARE YOU AN IDIOT?” He took a deep breath, trying to rid his head of the Flash hanging in Zooms hands, “Have you … You haven’t seen what this freak can do or you’d know that we need all the help we can get. If we don’t Zoom out of the way, once he’s finished taking out the general population who do you think he’ll come for to do his dirty work? Do any of you fancy being slaves to a phsychotic speedster?” When none of them replied Len nodded, “That’s what I thought. We leave in three days, make sure you’re all ready by then, we have a meeting with team Flash tomorrow”_

_Len started to walk towards the door when Shawna suddenly spoke out, “Leaving?”_

_“For Earth-2.” He left the room._

_Hartley could explain._

_“Knock knock?” Len sighed as his sister pushed his door open._

_“What do you want sis?” He knew she must be after something otherwise she would’ve just walked in without a second thought._

_She pouted and sat down on the end of the bed, “Oh Lenny.”_

_Len raised an eyebrow and Lisa smiled sadly at him._

_“What happened to make you so angry at Zoom...” She paused as if considering she should continue, “What made you so scared for the Flash?”_

_Len snorted, “I’m not scared for the Flash, I’ve just seen that it’s a suicide mission for him to fight that monster alone”_

_“Lenny” Lisa scowled at her brother, “I’m not one of them okay, don’t act like I’m stupid”_

_Len shut his eyes for a moment and let his head fall back against the wall, playing with the ring on his finger. When he opened his eyes again he half smiled at his sister._

_“He’s going to die Lisa”_

_Lisa took her brothers hand and started to rub her thumb over the top._

_“Are you crazy? Have you seen what they’ve taken on? Nothing can take down that kid”_

_Len let out a shaky laugh, “Lisa last time … I watched the video and the Flash was broken, he looked like a rag doll and Zoom was just holding him there for everyone to see, pretty sure the kids back was broken. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if everything was broken.”_

_Lisa just stared at her brother and suddenly Len felt like his younger self again, so scared of what was to come, instead of confident like he was when a heist was timed perfectly to the second._

_“Lenny I need you to promise me something” Len just nodded, “I need … I need you to promise me that if it comes down to it, that you won’t risk your own life to save his”_

_Len stiffened and Lisa stopped moving her thumb over his hand._

_“Lisa I …”_

_Lisa put a hand over her mouth and Len saw the tears in her eyes. She moved it and shook her head at her brother, “God Lenny, when did you find time to fall in love with the Flash?”_

_Len opened his mouth to deny it, to take back what his sister had said. But he couldn’t and Len felt himself start to panic, when had this stupid kid, the one who ruined all of his heists, the one that he’d been teaming up with for some time now to take down bigger problems, become someone he … someone he …_

_“He’s just a stupid kid Lise” Was all Len could choke out before his sister pulled him into a hug. Len and Lisa didn’t often have heart to hearts, and Len knew that Lisa wouldn’t bring this up again. For that he was grateful._

_“Flash, so good seeing you again” Len drawled, Rogues standing being him._

_The entire of Team Flash were facing them, including the two detectives and the West boy._

_“Snart” Barry said, with a smirk on his face and Len narrowed his eyes. “So you’re helping us then? To save the world?”_

_Len held up a hand, “Helping **ourselves** Flash, after all, it wouldn’t do us any good to have Zoom running around and ruining a perfectly good system that I’ve set up for myself and the Rogues now would it?”_

_Barry just grinned at him, “Say what you want Leonard, but you’re just proving that I was right, that there is-”_

_“As heart-warming as this is, don’t we have a murder to be planning?” Hartley cut in with a sickly smile, if anyone would interrupt Len’s conversations, of course it would be Hartley._

_The younger man walked comfortably over to team Flash, opening one of the tablets (while Caitlin muttered to him that it wasn’t really a **murder** exactly) and pulling up all of the information they needed onto the bigger screens._

_Everyone moved closer but Hartley still stood in the middle of the two groups, like Switzerland._

_Stepping in front of them all with Cisco, he turned first to Team Flash “For the Rogues benefit I’ll pretty much be repeating what you all know. Okay so do you remember that big swirly thing that appeared in the sky a few months ago?”_

_“Hartley” Len warned, the Rogues might not be scientists like Team Flash, but they weren’t idiots._

_“Sorry sorry. Okay so when that opened, it also opened what we call ‘breaches’, now these breaches lead to ‘Earth-2’. It’s basically like our Earth but with different outcomes. So for example Miss. West over here is in fact the Captain of the CCPD,” Iris smiled and Hartley grinned back, for some reason that was beyond everyone these two got on well enough for Iris to have been at the safe house one day, “And our **good detective** Joe West, well he’s dead on Earth-2” Hartley grinned even more and a few of the Rogue’s nodded their heads in approval. Iris frowned at Hartley and he just shrugged._

_“Hartley” Len warned again, noticing Barry’s sudden discomfort, and the younger held his hands up in surrender._

_“Anyway what we’re going to do is open the last breach we have access to, pop through and kill Zoom and any of his minions that get in the way.”_

_Suddenly Caitlin stepped forward, slightly red. “We also have someone over there willing to help us. Her name is Killer Frost. She used to work with Zoom but after some … disagreements, she’s decided to help us.” Caitlin hesitated a moment before tapping on the tablet, bringing up a picture of Killer Frost._

_Well damn._

_On the screen was the doppelgänger of the Doctor, except this one had blue eyes, white hair and honestly even Len wasn’t sure if he’d want to cross her._

_The Rogue’s all muttered between themselves and Len rolled his eyes before speaking up, “How do we know she won’t betray us?”_

_“Yeah betrayal would suck wouldn’t it” Cisco muttered bitterly, clearly referring to Ferris Air, but Len just smirked at him._

_“Look what happened … well she won’t betray us” Barry tried to assure them, but Caitlin put a hand on his arm and nodded softly. Barry hesitated for a moment before speaking again and bringing up a picture of a man with brown hair, one that had the Doctor wincing which Len found interesting. “This is a meta who was known as Deathstorm, he was also husband of Killer Frost. But Zoom killed him after he tried to disobey his orders, so when we say she won’t betray us, you can trust us.”_

_“So what’s the plan then? We go in and just each take it in turns to fight Zoom until we’re all picked off one by one? I don’t know about you but that doesn’t really sound like a plan” Len drawled and the Rogues all muttered in agreement._

_“No, that’s not the plan. The plan is that we all go in, I fight Zoom and everyone else keeps his backup distracted.”_

_Len felt his blood go cold and suddenly Lisa was behind him with her hand on his arm._

_Len tried to smirk but he knew it fell short, “Oh and that worked out so well last time did it Flash?”_

_Barry winced and Len knew it was a low blow._

_Len stood alone in the Cortex with Barry while the others went off for a more in depth briefing about everything that could go wrong._

_Len’s coat was off and Barry’s cowl was down but he was standing defensively, arms folded across his chest._

_“Going to talk me out of this Len?” Ah that was why._

_Len just shook his head and Barry relaxed a little bit, “No … But I don’t really think you’ve thought this one through” And the tension was back._

_“Look Sn-Len, I know you just see me as some stupid kid but I know what I’m doing okay? I beat the Reverse Flash and I can beat Zoom.”_

_Len frowned, he didn’t see Barry as some stupid kid, but that wasn’t what he said. “But Zoom isn’t the Reverse Flash is he Barry, I saw what he did to you and that’s what he’ll do again”_

_Len stepped forward closer to Barry and Barry glared at him._

_“That was one time, I’m faster now”_

_Len just laughed, “You may be faster kid but what about everyone else? What happens when you die and he comes for us?”_

_“I won’t-” Barry started but Len just snapped back “WHAT happens Barry?”_

_“You – I won’t – I can’t –” He gripped the edge of the desk and slowly sunk back until he was sitting on it, Len moved with him so that he was still standing in front._

_“Can’t what?”_

_“I – People always die around me Len and I can’t do that anymore, I didn’t even want anyone coming with me in the first place anyway. I can’t have other people fight Zoom because what if someone dies again? I can’t have another person die for me”_

_“That isn’t up to you kid. It’s not your choice whether or not someone puts their life on the line. And this? This isn’t just for you; it’s for the world. This is bigger than the Flash now, bigger than criminals vs. heroes. It’s about the world against a monster.”_

_While he’d been speaking Len hadn’t realised he’d put a hand on the side of the kids face. He went to move it but Barry grabbed his arm, Len tried not to be surprised._

_“Just promise me something” Barry spoke up, two promises in two days, “Don’t die. You’re a hero Len whether you want to admit it or not and we can’t … I can’t have you die okay?”_

_Len found it funny the emotions the possibility of death brought to light. Really Len should’ve been ready for this but instead it had his heart beating quickly against his chest._

_“Sure Scarlet”_

_Len watched Barry as he delivered the killing blow into Zoom’s chest, smiling as he realised it was over._

_Suddenly Zoom’s body started to pulse and everything seemed to slow down._

_The next few seconds seemed to last a lifetime._

_Len looked towards Lisa who was firing her gun and laughing along with Mick, who was letting out celebratory roars. Len knew what was about to happen, he could see it in the way the power in Zoom’s body burned for a release._

_Just as Zoom’s body was about to explode Len saw a meta come up behind Barry. The kid didn’t notice and he couldn’t die now, not after everything he’d been through._

_Lisa turned to smile at him, but it slipped into a frown as she saw the calm look on her brother’s face._

_Turning back to the Flash he lifted his gun._

_He heard his sister scream as she realised what was happening._

_Zoom started to explode._

_I’m sorry Lisa._

_Len fired his gun just as Zoom exploded, the blast hit the meta, killing him instantly._

_But Len didn’t have time to take his finger off the trigger before the wave hit the blast of his gun … before it hit him._

_I’m sorry Barry._

Len frowned as sudden influx of memories. He wondered what it would’ve been like if Zoom hadn’t exploded, if he hadn’t ruined their lives even after he’d died.

“Your thinking is giving me a headache,” Barry suddenly muttered still half asleep and Len jumped.

Len walked into his room over to the chair next to the bed, before sitting on it and looking at Barry again.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked once Barry had properly woken up.

“Oh are we friends now?” Barry snapped and Len winced, “Sorry that was mean.”

Len sighed, “No it’s fine”

“I’m feeling better, arm’s still a bit sore but … Len you’re not helping”

Len looked down and realised that the air around him had started to go frosty.

“Sorry”

“Don’t be, you help things go back to normal anyway”

Len frowned, not understanding what he meant.

“With my powers sometimes time can be a messy thing. I’m so fast that sometimes the world around me can seem too slow, a conversation can feel like a lifetime. But your powers, well they slow me down kind of like your gun, but it’s not as painful.”

“As painful?”

Barry laughs, “You’re still a bit cold Len, my powers make me hot, it takes a moment to get used to.”

That’s probably why he and Mick got on so well, Len’s mind suggests and Len frowns at it.

“What’s on your mind?” Barry asks and Len raises an eyebrow, “Oh come on, I know something’s the matter, you’ve been sulking with me since you woke up”

Len scowls, he hasn’t been sulking.

He waits a moment before speaking up. “So you and Mick huh?” He winces a bit.

“Me and Mick … ” Barry frowns for a moment before realising what Len is suggesting, his eyebrows shooting up, “What? No! Not at all me and Mick he’s just a friend”

“But he said … What about the nickname?”

Barry blushes a bit at that, “That isn’t what you think”

“Everyone thinks what I think”

“That’s because I haven’t explained it to anyone”

“Explain it to me”

“You’re not going to let this go until I explain are you?”

Len raises an eyebrow as if to say ‘obviously’ and Barry sighs.

“When you were in the coma, I was watching over you one day” Len found it interesting that Barry didn’t bother pretending that he was there for Caitlin, “And Mick came in. It was one of the first days and Mick was just standing there just staring at me. I asked him why and he … he said he could see why you liked me when I looked like a “bloody porcelain doll”. So I told him I wasn’t made of porcelain and he laughed at me and said, “I don’t see you denying the doll part”

Len laughed, trust Mick to wind up someone he barely knew.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Len picked up Barry’s arm to look at it, the bruising was fading now and Len couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy over the fact that Barry would never have to see any of his scars.

Len was aware of Barry watching him as looked over his wound. He could feel his eyes threatening to turn white as he thought about how much Barry had probably had to heal from in the past.

He felt Barry shudder and realised that despite his best efforts he was starting to go cold and he tried to snatch his hands away but Barry caught one of them in his anyway.

“Hey it’s okay Len”

Len looked up at him and Barry just smiled, properly slotting his hand into the older mans, before leaning back against the bed and shutting his eyes.

He was silent for five minutes and Len thought he’d fallen asleep before Barry whispered, “You know I always thought that your blue eyes were cute … but your white eyes, damn they’re hot”

Len let out a small chuckle before shutting his own eyes, leaving his hand on the medical bed wrapped up in Barry’s.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed xx  
> Feel free to comment / kudos / bookmark


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